My father is a hard-working and friendly man. He taught me to drive, play baseball and fish when I was young. However, one other thing my dad's good at was holding a grudge（怨恨）. For most of my teen years, he didn't speak to his younger brother, although they were at many family events together.

I was never sure why my dad was so angry with my uncle in the first place. They spent many festivals seated at opposite ends of the table. It was simply something that we all accepted at the time.

When I was nineteen, I got a call in my college dorm that my dad was having serious medical problems. My mom picked me up in the middle of the night so we could be there in time. However, my dad was arranged to transfer to a better hospital the next day. I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned.

That morning, as my mom and I walked down the hallway of the hospital, we could see straight into my dad's room. A tall man wearing a stylish suit stood over my father's bed with his back to us. Casually, my mom remarked how nice it was for the doctor to come by to see my dad so early in the morning.

But through my misty eyes, something about the scene surprised me. The man with his back to us was standing very quietly. He was holding both of my dad's hands. It was definitely not a typical doctor's behavior. I stopped at the door of the room.

I whispered softly to my mom, “That's not a doctor. ”

The other miracle was my father's new relationship with his younger brother.

Crane climbed into the last remaining lifeboat. Three men got into the boat with him. They were the ship’s captain, the cook and a sailor named Billie. For three days, the men steered the small boat through high waves along the coast of Florida. At last, they saw land.

A long stretch of coast lay before the eyes of the men. Slowly, the land rose up out of the mountainous sea. The men could see a small house against the sky. To the south, they could see a lighthouse. Tide, wind and waves were pushing the lifeboat northward. The men thought someone on land would have seen the boat by now.

The men waited and waited but nothing happened.

The waves grew stronger. They seemed always just about to break and roll over the little boat. The coast was still far away. The sailor said: “Boys, the boat won’t live three minutes more, and we’re too far out to swim. Shall I take her to sea again, captain?”

“Yes! Go ahead!” said the captain. The sailor turned the boat and took her safely out to sea again.

“It’s funny those life-saving people haven’t seen us,” one of the men said.

“Maybe they think we’re out here for sport! Maybe they think we’re fishing. Maybe they think we’re fools.”

The coast was still far away. The sun began to go down. It got dark and cold. Billie rowed, and then Crane took his turn. They rowed and rowed through the long night. The land had disappeared but they could hear the low sound of the waves hitting the shore. This was surely a quiet night.

A night on the sea in an open boat is a long night. The sailor continued to row until his head fell forward and sleep overpowered him. Then he asked Crane to row for a while. They exchanged places so the sailor could sleep in the bottom of the boat with the cook and the captain.

Crane thought that he was the one man afloat on all the oceans in the world. The wind had a sad voice as it came over the waves.

Suddenly, there was a long, loud swishing(嗖嗖声) sound behind the boat and a shining trail of silvery blue.

When day came, the four men saw land again.

Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle basket into a life lesson I carry with me today.

Managing the family budget（预算）must have been a very hard task，but my mother made it look easy. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we'd hear something like, "I don't care what so-and-so got for his birthday; you are not getting a TV in your room, a car for your birthday or an expensive birthday party. "We had to earn our pocket money by doing the housework. I can still remember how long it took to shine（擦亮）the legs of our coffee table. My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house. We made our own beds(no one left the house until that was done）.We had to keep track of our belongings（物品），and if something was lost， it was not replaced.

It was summer and, one day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed—and there it was in the window. White, shiny, plastic and decorated（装饰）with flowers，the basket winked（眨眼）at me and I knew—I knew—I had to have it.

"It's beautiful," my mother said when I pointed it out to her. "What a nice basket."

I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn't stand it any longer: "Mom, please can I please, please get it? I’ll do extra chores for as long as you say. I'll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?"

"You know, "she said，gently rubbing my back while we both stared at（注视）what I believed was the coolest thing ever," If you save up you could buy this yourself."

"By the time I make enough it'll be gone!"

"Maybe Roger here could hold it for you," she smiled at Roger, the bike store Owner.

"He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?"

"There might be another way," she said.

And so our paying plan began.

Days later, a neighborhood girl appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike.