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Five years later, I did the hardest job of my life when Tom lost his battle with cancer. I had to tell my children that the grandfather they adored was gone. I had to explain that Tom wouldn't be coming home from the hospital. How do you tell preschoolers (幼童) that news? I said the words as kindly as I could, with my arms wrapped tightly around them.
备忘录英文
Tom had been a good man; an excellent man. There were few in the community who didn't know of someone who hadn't been done a good turn by him. Random strangers arrived at the funeral ceremonies and told us their stories. Many had been unheard by the family until that day. "He taught me how to ride a bike," smiled one lady in her sixties. "I was terrified and my father had given up trying. Tom brought me to a quiet, flat lane and kept encouraging me until I managed it."
My mother-in-law recalled the number of times Tom had arrived home on Christmas Eve to announce that she'd need to make the turkey stretch电影八佰观后感 (增量) to another plate or two. He couldn't bear to think of someone spending Christmas alone. He'd issue invitations to the m
ost unlikely characters, but it always made for an entertaining dinner table.
A beautiful wreath (车辆英文花圈) and letter arrived from a woman Tom had mentored (指导) early in her career and treated like his own daughter. I could understand her grief and fond memories. I'd felt he was my extra father, too.
Tom's sons have been asked to take their father's role in local charity work, but nobody is ready to sit in his chair at the table. Between them, his family coaches local football teams, cares for riously ill relatives, and give many hours to their communities.
As for me, I'll teach my children to honor Tom's memory by volunteering themlves. We've already cleaned our local beach and we've replaced rubbish with trees and flowers. I understand now that anybody can make a difference, if they have an open heart.
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女生适合什么专业My thirteen-year-old daughter Lisa remembers birthdays, makes people cards when th
ey are sick, and nds encouraging notes written in colored pens in her neat, artistic hand.
害怕的四字词语
One day I got a call from her school principal (校长):
“I called to tell you that in twenty years of teaching I have never en anything like what Lisa did today,” he said.
I held my breath again as I thought, My Lisa? My sweet daughter? He must have the wrong kid. What could she have done?
My silence prompted him to go on. "I've never en a student do anything so nice for anyone who needed it more."
"What did she do?" I asked. He explained to me about the cupcakes翠苑一区 (杯形蛋糕).
When Lisa came home from school that afternoon, I told her the principal from her school had phoned me.
12星座智商排名“Yeah”, she answered. “I got called out of math class to go to his office. Everybody thought I was in trouble, but he just wanted to know what was going on at lunch."
Lisa and Ashley had sat with Jordan, a boy who is in special education class. They got to talk about birthdays, and Lisa asked Jordan when his birthday was. He told it was coming up but that he lives in a group home and they don't celebrate birthdays there.
“I remembered his birthday was today, so I made the cupcakes yesterday,” Lisa explained. “Ashley brought a two-liter of soda and some birthday cups, plates, and napkins (餐巾纸) left over from her little brother's party, and we got some other kids together at lunch today to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jordan.”
The principal wanted to know why they were having a birthday party for Jordan at school. When they told him, he just shook his head, took off his glass, and rubbed his eyes,” Lisa told me. “Finally, he said he was going to call my parents but that I wasn't in trouble, he was proud of what I did, and I could go back to math."
How different my daughter was from me. Better, in fact! I would not have even known how to help out disadvantaged kids like that. But my wi daughter knew how -- all it took was cupcakes and one adventurous, independent, kind spirit.
3
One day when I was working as a psychologist at a children's institution, a boy showed up in the waiting room. He was walking up and down restlessly.
I showed him into my office. "Plea sit down," I said.
David’s grandfather had died and his mother was killed in a car accident. Now he was 14 and in family care.
蛏苗
