1 . My Father, the Family Man

This year, my seasonal depression took me deeperssion the past, and a new portrait of my father came into my mind. He was a sometimes difficult, always determined man.

In my early memories, I was sitting at the kitchen table listening to my father yelling (叫嚷) about his challenges as an Italian immigrant. Back then, I couldn’t have known his pain as he struggled to find his footing in this new land.

“We left Italy to give you three girls more opportunities for a better life,” he said. “But we’d had a shaky start. The apartment your aunt had secured for us fell through at the last minute. It went to someone without children. So the five of us moved into your aunt’s living room.”

Bills mounted up. “And then I saw your mother’s face was as white as a sheet.” He said bitterly but soon stared down at the table to compose himself. “And the baby was crying. I worried that the houseowner would come knocking on the door.”

Dad jumped to the end of his story, “What more can I say? I went looking for a job. I found one.”

Armed with a few English phrases and determination, he’d walked for miles in a city he didn’t know, stopping at every hair salon, asking for a chance to show his skills as a hair stylist, his profession and passion. That’s what he’d been doing all day, supporting for his family.

Forty years later in Toronto, he sat at the table, asking if I thought he’d provided well for his family. I answered. His eyes watered. Mine did, too.

A few minutes later, the other two cyclists arrived. They were shocked to find Mac’s bicycle lying on the road, his tent bag torn and Mac just like a drowned mouse. They asked anxiously     1    (到底发生了什么). Mac responded breathlessly that     2     (他差点被一匹狼吃掉). When told about     3     (Mac经历了什么), they couldn’t help screaming out, “What a narrow escape!” “Yes, without their timely help,     4     (我早已经是狼的盘中餐了).” Mac’s friends were also thankful to Paul and Becky. Afraid that there might be more potential dangers ahead, Paul and Becky asked kindly     5     (他们是否需要搭便车). Mac and his friends answered with one voice,   “    6     (我们乐意). Thank you from the bottom of our hearts！”

4 . In 1963, at age 65, my grandfather decided to build a new house on his farm. In order to save money, he hired a bulldozer (推土机) to________the old house far out to the________and it sits there to this very day.

We moved in the farm two years after my father passed away. When my wife took one look at the ________house, she________tearing it down. I agreed, but thought it________to check it out first, in case something of value had been________.

I walked into the woods where the old house sat. Most of the windows were________, and the siding was falling off. I entered through an open window. Suddenly, a(n)________on the floor caught my eye. I opened it. It was dated September 1944, when my father was serving in the navy abroad, at the age of 18. It wasn’t hard to read between the________. Here was a(n)________ young man, a kid really, who left his home and fought battles somewhere in the South Pacific. At the________of the page, in underlined print, my father had passed on one last message. Tears________my eyes as I read those words he had so________stressed：“All is well here. Please don’t worry. I am doing fine.”

As I left the old house that day, I took one last________back at it over my shoulder. I don’t care what anyone thinks. I________∶That old house gets to stay there until it rots (腐烂) into the earth.

After staying at home and taking care of her baby for nearly two years, Rebecca found it hard to make a decision between accepting an attractive offer from her former employer and going on looking after her son Tony at home. She talked, with her husband David, about sending Tony to a childcare center. David gave it a careful thought and decided to leave his job for a year to take care of Tony before he could be sent to a kindergarten, promising to be a super Dad and househusband. It was good news for Rebecca but she knew her husband too well. It would take David some time to get used to finicky（细致的） jobs of taking care of Tony. So she told David she wanted hourly updates on how Tony was handling his day away from Mom.

David was adapting quickly. He texted updates throughout the day, getting hourly instructions from Rebecca. It seemed that David was enjoying his new role and Tony liked the company of Dad, although they often got the home messy. What Rebecca didn’t expect is that David became famous on social media as Super Dad, because people liked watching the videos he posted.

One day, he sent his usual text updates and included a photo of Tony in his car seat during their trip to Walgreens. Rebecca’s reply was to correct Tony’s position in the car seat. And she reminded David that the straps（肩带） were too loose and the chest clip was too low. David laughed at his nagging（絮叨的） wife and rolled his eyes before tightening the car seat and fixing the chest clip. Fifteen minutes later, Rebecca’s phone rang with a call from her husband, “Honey, we had a car accident. We are fine, but the car is going to be totaled（彻底毁坏）.”

Less than three miles from their house, David told Rebecca, a woman had pulled into traffic to turn left.

Rebecca was so thankful that her husband took the extra one minute to put Tony in his car seat safely.

7 . I was in my home office on a cold Sunday when I heard a quick knock on the door. I _____ downstairs, threw open the door and saw my dad _____ something wrapped up in paper in his arms. Strangely, he had given no hint (暗示) of it when we spoke on the phone last night.

“Open it.” he said.

I opened it to find a yellow begonia (秋海棠). It occurred to me that it was Mother’s Day.

“But···but I’m not a mother.” I said, _____.

My dad smiled, “Well, some special people aren’t mothers. but I think they _____ to get flowers, too.” With that, he hugged me and drove off.

Later, I called to thank him and we got to talking a lot. That’s when he let me in on his little _____. He had decided that he would challenge himself to do one act of _____ per day. It had started several weeks before when he accidentally knew a friend of his was having a rough day. He knew she loved ice cream, so he drove straight to her house with a huge tub of ice cream.

“She laughed _____ when she saw it,” he said, “It really delighted me to know that I had _____ her day.”

When asked why, he added, “I already know about the importance of being _____ in the moment. So, I try to be there with each person I am spending time with. I want them to feel important and believe in the goodness in people in that moment.”

I realized my dad was making a difference in people’s lives. ______, I also want to be more like my dad, who goes out of his way to make people feel loved and cared for.

9 . I cleared the dishes from the kitchen table, with Mama following close behind to carry our tableware to the kitchen. There was no stopping her. Despite everything, she still wants to _______ , I thought.

My mama had _______ in moving around and had lost much of her speech to Parkinson’s disease. After a recent fall that left her with a broken arm, the _______ suggested she use a wheelchair. It was _______ to see her like this. From the time I was a kid, Mama had always been an active person with a positive _______ . I could still see her in my mind, cooking and cleaning in the house I grew up in, sometimes humming (哼唱) while _______ .

Now I did my best to _______ her like she’d done for me. I made the long drive as often as possible to _______ her and help around the house. Independent as ever, she never _______ working. “You’ve done ________ , Mama,” I said when she took the towel to clean the table. Where does she get the ________ ？

I turned on the tap to wash our dishes and noticed a ________ coming from Mama’s direction. I turned off the running water. Mama was humming! I ________ as she moved around the table, her happy song filling the room. “What’s it that you’re humming, Mama?” “Count Your Blessings (常怀感恩),” she ________ with a smile on her face.

________ , it was where Mama’s strength came from. There was no stopping her from being thankful, always.