Gillibrand, others see Giffords open her eyes

At first, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes just a tiny bit. Then she opened them again, and again. With female friends from Congress and her husband huddled around her hospital bed - just moments after President Barack Obama paid a visit last night - Giffords opened her eyes a total of five times and reached for her husband's hand, according to the people in the room.

It was the first time she had opened her eyes since the shooting that wounded her Saturday outside a Tucson grocery store. "We all started crying," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), said in a phone interview from Air Force One later last night. "Other than the birth of my children, it was the most incredible moment I have ever had."

Also in the room were Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who were talking to Giffords and encouraging her to get well before she opened her eyes. Gillibrand urged Giffords to "get better," calling her by her nickname, Gabby. Wasserman Schultz told her that she hoped she would get well quickly enough to vacation with her family in New Hampshire next summer.

"It was like witnessing a miracle," Gillibrand told CNN.

"Debbie and I were telling her how much she was inspiring the nation with her courage, her strength, and we were talking about the things we wanted to do as soon as she was better," Gillibrand told CNN. "I said, 'We'll have another night out for beer and pizza with your husband.' And Debbie started talking to her about their house in New Hampshire, just talking about all the things we wanted to do, and all of a sudden she started to struggle to open her eyes. So Mark saw that and said, 'Open your eyes, Gabby, open your eyes.' She kept struggling and struggling and Mark just kept encouraging her. And within a moment she literally opened her eyes."

Having just flown in from Washington with Obama to attend a memorial service, the visitors did not expect Giffords to make one of the most affirmative gestures of her recovery so far.

When Giffords opened her eyes the first time, her husband and the doctor in the room reacted with shock. Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, asked Giffords if she could give a thumbs up. She didn't at first. But after a few minutes, she was able to reach toward him. "Her whole arm went up in the air," Wasserman Schultz said. "She started touching his wedding ring." By the time Giffords opened her eyes for a fifth time, she was able to keep them open for more than 30 seconds, Wasserman Schultz said.

The group was in the room between 10 and 15 minutes.

When Obama departed from his prepared text to announce in his speech that Giffords had opened her eyes, it became one of the most rousing applause lines. He did not get into details, except to say that her colleagues and husband had witnessed the moment.

Recounting it several hours later, Wasserman Schultz was emotional. Struggling to explain how Giffords had taken such a remarkable turn for the better that night, she said, "It was the power of friendship."