My little girl thinks the scar on my chest is where the doctors fixed my heart

Dear Delyara, I had open-heart surgery when my daughter was three. She is seven now. Tonight, she saw the scar while I was changing and asked whether that is “where the doctors fixed your heart.” I said yes. She touched the top very gently and asked if the heart underneath is still broken. I told her no, it works well now. She said, “Good, because I need it.” Then she went back to brushing her teeth. I stood in the bedroom unable to move. The surgery terrified me because I thought about dying and leaving her too young to remember me properly. Recovery was painful, slow, full of practical goals: walking farther, breathing deeper, lifting weight again. Four years later, my child thinks of the scar in the simplest possible way: something was broken; people fixed it; she still needs the result. I spend so much time being embarrassed by how my chest looks now. Tonight, she made it sound like evidence that repair actually happened.