1 . I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling (天花板). I hadn’t been able to sleep _________ since Richard passed away a month ago. I was full of pain and _________ at not ever having told him how much I loved him.

Richard was my stepfather. When I was nine, Richard _________. Richard was a big guy with huge hands. But he was the gentlest _________ I’d ever meet. On weekends, we’d work together on home improvement projects and the three of us were _________.

One day, while working in the barn, Dad got a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. When we took him to the _________, they told us it was internal bleeding from the blood thinners (稀释剂) he was on. It was only a (n) _________ of time. All we could do was make him _________.

I sat alone with him that day. He was _________, and we spent time talking about the barn, the horses and his truck. There was so much I wanted to say, and so much I wanted to hear from him __________. But it was hard for us to be open with our __________. It was the last time we ever spoke. Dad __________ a few days later.

As I was grieving (悲痛), suddenly, a birthday card from Dad __________ my eye, which was written for my birthday years ago. It said he loves me. Holding that, in tears, I assumed Dad knew how much he __________ to me. For the first time since Dad’s passing, I felt a heavenly peace, and finally I could __________.