1 . When you left us, it was the end of a long, painful road. Since then, I was_______my favorite memories of you.

I remember us taking our family dog for walks together on the _______ sand dunes (沙丘). I remember sitting on your knee, watching candlelight _______ inside. Once I bought you a gift — a _______ printed on a glass board, titled “Walking With Grandpa.” _______, you wrote me your own poem, too. I imagine how you must have taken time finding the right words, how you printed it out and cut the paper to _______ before placing it in the frame.

However, Alzheimer began its _______ through your life. In your last few days of life, I was _______ when sitting by your bedside silently, feeling very worried and afraid. I didn’t know what to do or how to _______.

Now, I am an adult, I wish I had been ________ — that I had come close to you and told you how deeply I loved you, how you filled the ________ which was the absence of my father in those 10 years of my life, so that I didn’t realize anything was ________. It’s only now that I am aware that when I ________ a relationship with my father, the reason why he fell short of ________ is that he wasn’t you. I really hope you know how much you ________ to me.

2 . No Time

With a broad smile on her lips, 15-year-old Sirin rushed to her mom to show off her new painting. But Mom spoke in an _______ tone, “No time, baby. Right now, I am busy with an important talk. Just wait for some time, OK?”

Holding her oil painting, she frowned(皱眉), and then _______ her dad. “Dad, see what I have done,” Sirin announced aloud in a thrilling _______. Her dad turned around while adjusting his tie, smiled at her, and showed his thumbs up! Immediately, Sirin replied _______ , “Dad, you haven’t seen it yet.”

“No time, baby. I will see it _______ .” He just patted her back lovingly, kissed her forehead, and rushed for his office.

Sirin was not a kid to be _______ with simple gesture or smile. She stood there for a few seconds, and then stormed off to her own bedroom. “Why is everybody so busy?” She _______ thousands of incidents that hurt her in pre-school, middle school and even in high school too! She assumed at least her own family members would give some values to her thoughts, but they were no _______. Unconsciously, her eyes were filled with tears.

When it was time for dinner, Sirin deliberately came late to join them. She kept silent and didn’t look at anyone, scratching the table mat with her nail. Her mom was _______ at the unusual behavior. Confused, she asked, “Honey, did I do anything wrong?”

Hearing this, Sirin could no longer ________ her anger. “Why is everybody so busy? I hate you!” she roared, grabbing the painting on the table and ________ it into pieces. So shocked was Mom that she rushed to hug Sirin and said “Baby, I am so sorry! I promise we will try our best to make it right.”

When back from school the next day, Sirin was ________ to see her beautifully-decorated painting on the wall. It was beautifully framed(装裱), ________ by the touching words: “We are so proud of you, our little angel!” On seeing it, Sirin burst out crying. Recalling her parents’ stress from work and daily life, she ________ her previous behavior. She looked up with watery eyes and apologized to her parents. In a family, it was proper attention and mutual(相互的) ________ that help build a strong bond.

3 . As a little kid I always asked to be held up in the air. So I could ________ down upon my mom’s washing machine and was attracted by clothes swimming in ________ in the soap water. I loved watching clothes being ________ so much. My mom and her mother ________ my passion by taking me shopping, involving me in fine clothes, and teaching me how to ________ them.

My love of washing clothes only ________ as I grew older. I learned how to wash and dry my own clothes properly before I was ten. In my ________ , I taught myself how to iron ________ , creating razor-sharp lines in my trousers. As time went by, with a love of dry-clean-only clothes but on a tight ________ as a college student, I asked my textiles (纺织品)professors if I could wash my wool sweaters myself rather than pay to get them dry-washed. To be ________ , I suspected I could. People had been wearing wool clothing since long before the invention of dry cleaning, ________

What I learned from my professors were not just the ________ but “love languages”—ways to ________ and experience love. Caring for your loved ones’ clothes shows them love. When their ________ are clean, smell wonderful, and look great, they are going to feel as if they can take on the world, and their days are going to be all the ________ .

4 . My 23-year-old son Dan packed, ready for the journey to work abroad for a year. It was a milestone, _________ the transition from his school days to adulthood.

I looked _________ at his face when we were to say goodbye, trying to remember every feature, meanwhile, _________ to say something that had long buried deep in my heart. However, not a sound came over my lips.

This wasn’t the first time I had let such an opportunity _________. On his first day in preschool, I accompanied him to the bus stop. His _________ and curiosity filled all the way. But even still, he boarded the bus and disappeared, I was _________. There still were many other _________ like this.

Now I stood in front of him, trying to recall all the times I had let go of. How often has that not happened to us all? A son graduates or a daughter is married. But at those ceremonies, we don’t seize the _________, telling them what they _________ to us.

Here and now, I knew it really mattered; but I still found myself nervous and uncomfortable. Why does it have to be so __________?

I gathered all my courage. “Dan,” I __________ stammered out (结巴地说出), “If I had the choice myself I would have chosen you.”

I was not sure whether he __________ what I meant. But then he stepped __________ me and put his arms around me. For a short while the world and everything was gone, there were only Dan and me.

What I told Dan was clumsy and commonplace. Yet it was __________.

Then he __________ the airport with his girlfriend in a taxi.

5 . The Healing Power of Music

Since Mom died and Dad lived alone, he was often angry, and lately he was getting more and more confusing. Today _______ to be worse than usual. He had a new aid named Linda, from our home country of Lithuania. The _______ of a stranger was bound to make Dad even more _______ .

Sure enough, Dad started _______ as soon as I got in the door. “This new girl doesn’t know anything,” he whispered with dissatisfaction.

“It’ll take some time for her to learn how to help you,” I _______ him.

The three of us sat _______ in the living room. I wished I could think of something to say. Lord, please help us feel more comfortable with this arrangement.

Linda _______ to her feet. Walking over to Dad’s record player, she _______ a Lithuanian folk record onto the turntable (转盘). The familiar accordion (手风琴) music played. Dad started _______ along to it. Liuda smiled.

The music seemed to drive all the ________ from the room. We chatted about Lithuania. It was one of the ________ visits Dad and I had ever had.

When I left, he hugged me good-bye and asked me to ________ old photos with him and Linda next time. ________ , I had a look at the old Dad, the man I’d always loved ________ time with.

I’d come to Dad’s house expecting the ________ . But with Linda’s help and a little music from the old country, I’d found what I would always love.

6 . Grandma Margaret, our neighbor across the street, was a good friend of my mom. One day near Christmas, we heard a knock on the door, and in walked Grandma Margaret with a(n) _________ bag. She walked over to the tree and placed that _________ under its branches (树枝). “For your mom and dad,” she said. Then she opened the bag and began calling our names.

After she left, we rushed to the _________ and started shaking the packages, trying to _________ what was in each package. I walked over to examine my mom and dad’s gift but could hardly _________ it.

On Christmas morning, we girls _________ downstairs to wake up our parents. “Hurry up, Mom and Dad! It’s Christmas!” They got out of bed, and we rushed to the living room. The night before, we’d _________ all our gifts in separate piles.

My dad thanked Grandma Margaret’s for her _________. Then we girls opened one present _________ until all our gifts surrounded (围住) us.

What I wanted to know next was what she had given my parents. You see, my dad was a __________ man who had trouble asking for help, especially when it came to __________. In fact, he seldom accepted gifts of money for his __________ family. Food and clothing for his little girls and wife were gratefully __________, but money was not.

Mom and Dad sat together and then Mom __________ the heavy package onto her table. She found a letter at the bottom. She __________ the envelope, and inside she found a $100 bill!

7 . I was an angry adolescent in my first years of college. One day I had a serious fight with my father.

I saw him as _________ and wanted to break free. We both exploded in shouts and I _________ out of the house. My mind raced with angry thoughts about him and I sighed all the way to school.

As I ran across the campus towards the classroom, I suddenly realized that I didn’t have the assignment that was _________: a thought card. Professor Simon had explained that every Tuesday we must _________ an index card, on which we wrote a thought, a concern, a question or anything that’s on our mind and that he would return the card every Wednesday with his _________ or answer on it. He stressed that the card was our _________ to class on Tuesdays.

Now, I raced down the hallway, ten minutes late to class. Just outside the door, I took out an index card and wrote on it “I am the son of an idiot!”, as I could only think about the _________ I’d just had with my dad. Then I dashed into the room, handed the card to Dr Simon and took my seat. The moment I reached my seat, I _________ telling him that about my dad. I didn’t want to _________ myself to him.

Wednesday morning I got to the class early and __________ in the back. Dr. Simon began returning our thought cards. On my card was written, “What does the ‘son of an idiot’ do with the rest of his life?” His question got right to the __________ of the issue: Whose problem was it? Whose responsibility was it?

Dr. Simon’s comment kept coming up in my mind over the next few weeks. Slowly, my thinking began to __________. People began to notice that I was taking __________ for my doings and choices. My grades improved. My relationship with my father also improved __________. Now I saw him as concerned and caring, instead of controlling. And it all __________ with a question, an innocent-seeming question.

8 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the ________ but we knew how much this band meant to her.

The night before she was like a ________ at Christmas. Every so often she got up and came to ________ with us, because she couldn't ________ . On the night of the concert it was good to see her so ________ and excited, as she and her boyfriend set off.

Needless to say when they ________ after midnight, with T-shirts and lots of pictures of the band, ________ her telling about how fantastic they had been, we knew the money had been well ________ . This will be a memory she would never forget, and nor would we.

________ full of excitement from the night before, the following day they ________ to go shopping on the other side of the city. My husband and I laughed, loving the fact that she had not ________   that quality as she grew up.

Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a ________ each. On each present were the words "Because you are the ________ mum/dad in the world. "When we expressed our thanks and told her she didn't have to, we asked her why she had bought us gifts. Her answer was simply "Just because I love you."

This wasn't something ________ from our daughter; she had always given us gifts when she wanted to express her ________ , and each gift was always a welcome surprise. It could have been anything, it wouldn't have mattered, and it was the act itself and the feelings behind it.

9 . I was visiting members of my late husband John’s medical team. They had worked hard when he _________ lung cancer. Each time I _________them for all they had done, I felt myself gaining closure.

Then I _________ to John’s favorite Chinese restaurant. We’d gone there after so many of John’s treatments. I wanted to talk to the manager, who knew about our _________ and had always been kind to us. When I pulled over, I could hear John’s voice in my cars. The _________ John told me every time I got behind the wheel. “Drive _________.”

This phrase was one of the ways he showed his _________. I knew when he said it, he was also saying, “I care about you.”

I took the manager aside. “I want you to know that John had _________.”

She _________. I gave her a hug __________ that John and I had so many people who cared. We exchanged some __________ of him and shared a few laughs.

As I was about to leave, I spotted a fortune cookie left by the manager. Should I__________ it? I didn’t need a fortune to tell me that life without John would still be__________. Still, just for fun, I opened the cookie and __________ the small piece of paper inside.

“The __________ ahead is long,” my fortune read. Drive safely.

10 . Earlier that evening, my mother called, telling me that my brother died in a car crash. I stumbled (跌跌撞撞地走) around the house _________ what to put into the suitcases. My husband, Larry, and I had been packing for moving to New Mexico. The house was in (a) total _________.

I tried to hold my tears. I _________ picked things up and put them down. I couldn't _________. What I'd heard on the phone echoed (回荡) through my head.

Larry phoned a few friends. _________, someone asked to speak to me. “If there is anything I can do, let me know.” “Thank you,” I replied. I didn't know what to _________.

The doorbell rang and I rose slowly for the door. It was Donna.

“I've come to clean your shoes,” she said. _________, I asked her to repeat. “When my father died, it took me _________ to get the shoes cleaned and shined for my father's _________,” she said. I hadn't even thought about shoes.

Shoes were gathered. Donna __________ herself on the floor and got to work. The love in the act __________ my tears. Watching her __________ on one task helped me pull my __________into order. Laundry first, I told myself. One by one, the jobs fell into place.

Now whenever I hear of an acquaintance's loss of a loved one, I think of one __________ task that suits that person's __________. If the person asks, “How did you know I needed that?” I'd reply, “Because someone did that.”