On January 8th Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head while conducting a Town Hall in front of a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona. Six people were shot and killed by a deranged gunman. Giffords and twelve others were wounded. Whisked away by paramedic Gabby disappeared from view, weeks passed, other victims recovered, returned to public life but Gabby was moved from Tucson to a Houston Hospital known for it’s excellence in patient recovery, months passed and media curiosity was increasing and there was a constant request for updates. I was asked to make some pictures. I have known Gabby for the past decade and had volunteered with her campaign during the election and had worked with her and her staff closely for months. They knew I was a photojournalist and preferred to work with the subject in their day-to-day environment so on May 17, the day after Mark Kelly, her husbands Space Shuttle Launch and the day before her hair was shaved again and her cranium replaced I met her in her Houston hospital unit. On my part, it was pretty over-whelming, she came in saying P.K., P.K., P.K., I could see her cognitive abilities were as sharp as ever, she was happy, bubbly and she was having trouble with words, her forehead showed trauma from the bullet, but her smile was blinding. Gabby soon headed down four floors to the back patio where she took sun and enjoyed fresh air. Today, two of her doctors were meeting her there, so her entourage of nurses, her mother, Gloria escorted by capitol police met around a picnic table on the patio. Gabby was having fun, enjoying the air, she started scooting around in her wheel chair followed closely but enjoying some freedom. I followed her at a distance with a 70-300 lens racked-in tight, she was enjoying the sunshine and as she looked up her eye caught my lens and at that moment I saw my old friend and made this exposure, it was fleeting and not posed. I left the flash card with Gabby’s staff and the next time I saw this image, it