When I was twelve, we wanted a swimming pool. My father was a teacher and we couldn’t _________ it. But we had the nicest lawn(草坪)and flowers in the neighbourhood. So Dad decided to start a yard-care _________ to make some money for the pool. I was expected to _________ on weekends and during the summer holiday.

On most days, I _________ it. Dad paid me twenty dollars a week. I was _________ and got to spend all day with my dad. Life was pretty good. One day, _________, I didn’t want to go. While I worked all day, my friends played _________. I also wanted a little bit of summer. So, I said, “_________.” It was _________—I had expected Mom and Dad would be very ____________ at me but they just looked at each other. Dad walked out to work after he phoned one of my ____________ to help for the day. Mom said I could stay at home if I liked. ____________ was happy.

After breakfast, I was going to ____________ outside with my friends. But Mom ____________ me and said I didn’t have to work with my father, but I had to stay at home helping her. I worked all day without the ____________ I usually got while working with Dad. I had been doing all kinds of ____________ until Dad came back. He handed five dollars to my friend, who ran home with ____________, shouting over his shoulder that Dad could ____________ him anytime.

Dad never ____________ to because I learned my lesson and I never ____________ a day again. And we got our pool which I enjoyed on my few days off.

My 70-year-old mother was fighting an 18-year battle with cancer. It was a battle I knew she would someday _______ . Maybe soon. And it _______ my heart to think about that.

Mom and I had a good relationship, but we just weren’t _______ in the way I was with my daughter. Mom and I never _______ or said “I love you” like I often do with my daughter. Sometimes I felt _______ about Mom`s love for me. Then the pandemic hit. Our city was in lockdown to _______ the possible infection (感染). Therefore, I didn’t come to Mom’s place but made daily phone calls instead, We didn’t say too much, but we knew we cared about each other. “I’ve set about quilting (缝被子), and I`ll make one for you,” my mother announced _______ over the phone one day. I tried to _______ her suggestion as it was too tiring for her, but she insisted.

My quilt was Mom’s last one. A month later, I got a call from Dad saying Mom was gone. A great sense of _______ overwhelmed me-the pandemic took away my last chance to see Mom and show my love to her.

One day, I decided to give quilting a(n) ________ myself for my daughter. I carefully ________ the fabric (面料) I thought she would enjoy, and maybe I was still trying to make a ________ between Mom and myself in this way. I always thought what had ________ her to quilting late in life. I imagined asking her for ________ on how to make the right stitches (针脚). Sometimes I’d ________ us sitting together in the living room watching TV together.

Finally, I got the quilt Mom ________ me. I opened it and what I saw caught my. ________ . It was exactly the same fabric I had chosen for my daughter. Yet something far more difficult to ________ at last became clear. Mom, in her own way, had ________ said those three beautiful words ”I love you” I ________ to hear.

It's strange, but I don't really remember about the hurricane itself. It all happened so _________. I was sitting in my room when the roof（屋顶）just _________. All of a sudden, there was sky where the roof had been and I was very _________. Without a roof, staying inside was really _________. It was August, so it was really hot and it smelled so _________ everywhere! Living in the _________ air, we became breakfast, lunch and dinner for the mosquitoes（蚊子）. We had lost our home and everything in it. But as Mom kept on _________ us, we were all together and safe. Mom's words made us feel _________. I remember us all lying under the midnight _________ and looking up at the stars. Even though we had lost a lot, moments like those gave us __________ for the future.

Although it was only a few days before we were __________, it felt like months. We were taken to another town in a faraway county. Now, one year has __________ and I'm back home in New Orleans. We are working together to __________ our homes and our lives. Now we have another chance to look up at the __________ of New Orleans, their beauty inspiring us and giving us __________ to move on.