It was a long drive to the nursing home (敬老院,养老院) where my grandmother was living. _________, at least twice a month I drove to see her. I’d already _________ my mom to cancer and I wanted to always remember my grandmother, especially because she was beginning to _________ me. Nanna had Alzheimer disease (老年痴呆症), which was slowly starting to eat away at her _________. Sometimes she recognized me when I visited her and sometimes she didn’t.

On one visit, I _________ my grandmother good-bye and started to walk towards my car. Suddenly a tiny hand seized mine. “James!” a _________ voice said. I turned and saw a smiling, wrinkled face. Like my Nanna, she had Alzheimer disease but was still able to walk and get around. She _________ me for her son (A nurse told me he’d died years ago). I held her hands and let her joyfully _________.Though her eyes didn’t know who I was, I saw the excitement in them when she spoke to her son through me.

On the following visits, I always took _________ to visit my Nanna as well as her. I always got a smile and sometimes even a __________ from her. The nurses told me she was always __________ and calmer after seeing her “son”.

Then one day I noticed she was __________. I spoke to the nurses and they sadly told me that she’d been dead for some days. I put my head __________ and went quietly into my Nanna’s room.

Her loss didn’t really hit me __________ I went for a walk at night. I looked at the sky, realizing something—for a while I really had been her son. Actually, in this world we’re all __________ by invisible strings of love.

It was hot and humid. I _______ myself out of the house to ride my bike along the Hudson River. I had _______ myself I would learn to ride with no hands and my summer freedom is decreasing. _______ lifting my hands before losing balance, I rode steadily up the bike path.

Later, I parked my bike and lay down on a wooden _______ Just as I got _______, a man appeared in my vision. “It looks like it’s going to rain,” he said. “I was just like you once,” the man continued. “One day, I went for a bike ride and lay down on a bench, _______ it started to rain. People walking by me probably thought I was _______” I listened, with the rain falling down. “Rain is like therapy (治疗),” he said, “_______ you just lie there and let it fall on your face.”

“I’m taking a tai chi class, and there’s this word, Kua, that means ‘Everything in the _______ is connected.’” He began to sway (摇晃) a little. “When the shoulders move, the hips move. Everything is connected.”The rain fell ________, and I told the man I’d better get home.“Nice to meet you,” he said, and we called each other’s bikes beautiful before ________ forever.

I had never ridden in the rain before. I was ________ that I wouldn’t be able to practice my hands-free skills on the way home. But then a(an)________ thought came into my mind: Why not? The wind and icy summer rain beat my face ________ my bent knees took turns being first and I ________ my arms in the air, my balance holding strong. I yelled to no one ________ I’d never been more truly in the moment. Everything was connected.