1 . During the last few years of his life my Dad lived just up the road from me in a tiny home that used to _______ my Nana. He had been a widower for over 20 years by then, _______ my Mom when she was only 55 years old. Recently his Mom, my Nana had _______ too. He just lived with himself and spent a lot of time _______.

Several times a week, though, I would take a walk up to his _______. We would sit in the living room or on the front porch, sip tea and talk. It wasn’t anything _______. We just talked sports, gardening, weather and occasionally _______ a laugh over old memories. It was a simple sharing a real _______ between a father and a son, an hour spent just enjoying each other’s _______. Those afternoons ________ some of my happiest times ________ with my Dad. It allowed us to gently ________ any old wounds we had given each other when I was ________. It allowed us to ________ give each other the time and love we hadn’t before. It ________ us with sweet chances to grow closer together ________ he left this world. And I thank God for that time.

I know too that when my own time in this world is done, when my own ________ on Earth is finished I will get to spend another afternoon with Dad. And we will make that afternoon last an eternity.

If there is one thing that I ________ from those afternoons I spent with my Dad during the last years of his life, it is this: It is ________ too late to spent time with those you love and tell them that you love them. Because love ________ anything, even death. Begin today then! Spend an afternoon with those you love and those afternoons will become a lifetime.