I now remember the day as if it were just yesterday. It was the early morning hours and I had _____ to my dad several hours before. We hung up the phone and I _____ my night time routine, getting my daughter ready for _____ and doing the same for myself. I went to sleep that night and the phone rang around 1:30 a.m. I saw that it was my brother _____ I thought he had probably been drunk so I hung _____ up. My brother gets drunk and calls me _____ Then the phone rang again and I answered. He asked me if I knew what was _____ because our cousin had called him and told him to call our aunt because she _____ to talk to him. She said there was no _____ at my parents’ house. At that point I started to ______ but I had to stay strong for my brother. I called the hospital and I asked if they had a ______ by the name of Ray Green. They said yes and nothing else. My mother called me back after a few minutes and told me that my father had ______.

I’m still so lost that sometimes I pick up the ______ to call my dad and then I remember he’s not there for me to make a phone call to. ______, I see something that would have made him ______ and I laugh twice for him too. My mother is so much ______ than I am. She is back at work and going on with her life and I’ve done the ______ but not like her. I know she ______ my father dearly but she is strong and keeps on so that everybody else can ______ her lead. So that is what I’m trying to do: stay strong and keep my ______ up.

   I’m a woman, whose colleagues are nearly all women as well. So having a son can be a strange experience. I sometimes tell my husband that raising our 3-year-old boy _____ someone dropped me off on another _____ where I didn’t know the language and had no map.

My son makes me laugh, but his desires and _____ sometimes do feel as _____ to me as another galaxy (星系). He has taught me so much about the bigger man (my husband) in my life and even _____ about men in general.

When I get _____ at my husband now, I look at our son and stop. He was once as sweet and precious as my son, _____ he is so annoying now.

My mother-in-law’s attitude used to be puzzling to me, but now I _____ it. I love my son so much. If some woman ever _____ him, she’d be punished for that.

______ my daughter can’t find something, she will search. But my son is ______ calling, “Mommy ! Daddy! Where is my toy?” It’s so much like my husband. He will also spend 0.1 second ______ for it before calling out to me and ______ where the butter, cheese, or coat is. My son has taught me it’s a man’s thing.______, that doesn’t mean I won’t make him stop having the bad habit. I ______ will. Isn’t that what all moms say?

My husband showers every day on most ______ days. But on weekends or on vacation? Forget it. Now I understand that. My son ______ bath time and screams the whole time. I have to bribe (诱哄) him to get ______.

Nothing is sweeter for a mom than her baby boy. My daughter and I are equally ______, but in a different way. He tells me he loves me and how beautiful I am. I wish I could bottle that sweetness and ______ it for his teen years.

I left home at 18 and pay my own way through college. In the past 20 years, I have worked for everything I needed. So it shocks me what some people in their 20s, still get their life supported by our parents. Some of these parents have difficult supporting their families.

It’s true that the job market is much more harder these days. Therefore, there are certainly some ways to make living on our own. Even if our parents is nice enough to pay for our college, we shouldn’t burden them at our problems. We should be financially responsible adults, made our parents proud of us.