I’ll never forget the day I met Senator John McCain.

He welcomed us into his office in the Senate in Washington DC. and he immediately grabbed my hand and told me he wanted to show me something.

He took me over to his bookcase behind his desk and showed me a picture of his family.

There were seven children in the photo. One really stood out because of her very dark skin. Sen. McCain pointed to the six-year-old little girl and told me,

“Brian, this is my daughter Bridget from Bangladesh. She was born with a cleft. ”

It was an amazing story.

Sen. McCain’s wife Cindy went on a trip to Bangladesh and visited a government orphanage where she met two babies that were struggling with major health problems. One of them had a hole in the heart, a serious birth defect that can be easily fixed in the United States but is usually fatal in a developing country.

The other baby girl had been born with a severe cleft. They both had been abandoned by their families and ended up in an orphanage.

Cindy was so concerned that these two babies would never receive the medical care that they needed and would die, that she brought them both home to Arizona without even telling her husband.

Sen. McCain more than a little surprised when his wife stepped off the plane with a newborn Bangladeshi baby with a gaping hole in her lip and palate.

“Where is this baby going to go? “he asked his wife. (They already had six children.)

“Well, I thought, she’d come to our house” said Cindy, “This is my daughter, she’s from Bangladesh, I couldn’t leave without her.”

Cindy says her husband “Looked at Bridget and he loved her just the way I have ever since. And I think this says a great deal about the man.”

Sen. McCain and his wife immediately adopted Bridget and their entire family embraced her. The McCain’s best friends adopted the other baby girl and made sure she had her hole-in-the-heart fixed. Cindy probably saved two lives by bringing those two babies home to the US.

“Bridget has enriched our lives,” Sen. McCain said. “she’s a wonderful child a complete part of our family and we love her.”

Now I knew why Sen. McCain would take time off from his busy schedule — he was running for President at the time — and meet with me.

We had a great conversation and I told him all about our plans to help every single child in the developing world that was waiting for cleft surgery. He was very impressed with how much we had accomplished and promised to help us any way that he could. He was incredibly generous with his time, supportive of our work, gracious, personable and friendly.

His wife Cindy later joined the board of Operation Smile where she had quite a positive impact. She raised a lot of money and awareness about the problem of clefts and the good work of Operation Smile.

Sen. McCain was one of the most remarkable people I ever met. When he passed away our country lost a true patriot, a great leader and a wonderful dad to seven lucky kids.