That! ? Moment? !

What would writers do without the question mark? (luckier still, Spanish writers, who can begin their questions with an upside down, wrinkle-your-brow-here question mark, to begin their questions...) : and then there's the rather immature mark, some say: of share-it-with-me exclamation - surprise surprise! But beyond all punditry, there are those moments when life unexpectedly confounds us with some event that's simply! ? - or one that's rather more? ! Once when I wrote for a magazine now defunct, I was offered one day as a kindness by our Editor to present myself to a famous ophthalmic (that's an eye-test in itself, that word) surgeon, who might have a part-time job to suit an underpaid journalist: an Indian in grand, top people's Harley Street. this Dr. Hiranyagarbha ran a sideline, a magazine for the Diplomatic Corps; in return for which he begged 'spare' eye corneas (don't ask) from more wealthy (or loosely-regulated?) nations which he then implanted nobly free of charge in the less fortunate around the world. The job was not quite up my Grub Street; but he offered for my trouble, a free eye test... I checked the exit at that stage. The test done, a dramatic pause... Then the great man announced 'Your eyes are ten years older than your face..' That's what I mean by a ! ? moment. A vision then arose, so to speak: ten years of blindness while my dying face caught up... dark glasses? or a small but decipherable, poetic plaque, pirate-slung over the forehead: 'Here lie those eyes of wild surmise which I unwisely failed to prize...' Maybe on reflection it was more of a ? ! moment, do you think? Though the other way round for eyes and face would be pretty scary and! ? for the funeral director?