1 . Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything. I asked him questions and he gave me _________. When I moved out on my own, I usually called him when something broke and I needed to know how to _________ it.

But then, eventually, I _________ him less. I got married, and my husband had the _________ I was short of. I didn’t know when it happened, but our _________ when I called developed into six words. Me: “Hi, Dad.” Him: “Hi, sweetie. Here’s Mom.” There would be a(n) _________ if my mum wasn’t at home. I _________ loved my dad, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already _________ everything I needed to know.

Then, this past summer, my dad said that he once spent a summer in college building boats. “You did?” I asked. I thought I knew everything about my dad. However, I never knew this. I _________ that in the past 40 years, I had focused on myself only. I felt a deep sense of __________.

A few weeks later, I called my parents. Dad answered. “Hi, sweetie. Here’s Mom.,” he said.

__________ to know more about him, I said, “Wait, Dad. How are you?” We __________ talking about a new battery he’d bought for his boat. To anyone else, it would sound like a __________ conversation between a dad and his daughter. But to me, it was novel and a new __________. I spent the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad. Now I talk to him because I __________ to.