I was surprised when I got a short message from my father wishing me a happy birthday.

I had expected to hear from my mother, my grandmother and other relatives (亲戚) but never from my father. Lying in bed, memories of my father came into my mind.

When I was a little boy, I regarded my father as a hero able to do anything. However, things slowly began to change. The more I learned, the more I doubted what he said. The gap between us grew and, at last, I didn’t even like communicating (交流) with him.

My father, in my mind, had no interest in talking with me. Dinner was the only time we were together. He had no time to watch TV with me. He would tell me to ask my mother if I needed something. He didn’t ever answer my calls when I phoned from school. I got used to the changes. I thought that perhaps my father no longer loved me, so I hardly communicated with him and even was unwilling to contact him.

As time passed by, however, I began to wonder whether my behavior was right. And I began to be more and more upset. I had no idea how to get along well with him. One day, my mother told me that each time I called, my father was always listening beside her. Suddenly, I hated myself for my cold behavior toward him.

I tried thousands of times to apologize to my father. In the end, however, I was always too embarrassed (尴尬的) about what I had done.

But that Saturday, I was so touched by his short message and decided to send a reply “ Thank you, my dear father.”     1    

Two days later, I decided to go home.     2    

【推荐3】Emily Bonfim Camargo, a 10-year-old girl, has cerebral palsy （大脑性瘫痪）. Because of her condition, her involuntary movements prevent her from freely holding objects with her hands or standing up. She's never been able to walk, but that doesn't mean she doesn’t have the same dreams and hopes as other children. In particular, she's always wanted to ride a bicycle.

“That was her dream, and I had 10 do something to help,” her grandfather. Clovis Urias dos Santos, a 69-year-old former construction worker? said. First he tried to make his granddaughter^ dream come true by buying her a tricycle （三轮车）. Unfortunately, she was unable to hold the handlebars to guide the vehicle, and she couldn't keep her balance on the seat. Her grandfather, however, isn't a man who is easily discouraged.

In his home workshop, he started to think of how he could make a more stable tricycle for her. He started to take things apart and put the useful pieces back together. “ I fixed the pedals （踏板）with brakes, and I didn't put on handlebars,” he told Sempre Familia a local news medium.