When I was a kid in junior high, I owned a big brick of a recorder. I’d ________ it at the dinner table, then push the red ________ to record. No one but me knew it was there.

One December night in the early 1970s, I ________ to record the moment when my younger brother began to ________ whether spirits existed. And for a bit more than six minutes, my mother and father tried to ________ him that, yes, spirits are ________ and are what we have faith in.

This turns out to be one of the only recordings I have of my mother’s ________ . She died of cancer a few years after the tape was made. She ________ the disease for nearly four years. Her suffering ________ my memory of what she was like before: before the illness—I could ________ remember her before she was sick. But ________ the tape now has brought that time, and my mother, back to me.

Surely this is a gift—maybe even a gift from spirits. As my mom ________ to us all those years ago: spirits are a ________ , a feeling.

And I can hear her voice today, all because I pushed the button on a tape recorder and ________ the exact moment a young child began to doubt—and a mother tried to keep him ________ a little while longer.

When I was a little girl, every time when my dad was repairing something, he would ask me to hold the hammer. Then we could have a time for a _________ with each other.

I grew up and left home for the college, and since then, he had been _________ me every Sunday morning. Later, when I bought a house, my dad was _________ it by himself for three days in the 30℃ summer _________. All he asked for was to hold his paint brush and _________ to him.

Several years ago, he was _________ me. He spent hours _________ a swing set for my daughter. He asked me to bring him a cup of tea and have a talk with him, but I had to _________ for a trip, so I did not have time for any long conversations.

One Sunday morning, we had a telephone talk _________ , and I noticed that my dad kept forgetting some things we discussed __________. Few hours later came a call. He was in hospital with an aneurysm(动脉瘤). Immediately I bought a ticket for the __________ and by the time I got to the hospital, my dad had passed away. Now it was he who did not have __________ for a talk with me.

After his __________ , I learned more about him, and I realized how little I knew about his deepest __________ and dreams. All he ever asked me was my time, but now he has all my __________ every single day.

My father lived a long life and was deeply loved by his wife, three children, eleven grandchildren and a large number of friends. He was smart and quick-headed. When I asked if he’d like to join me on Virgin Airlines, I remember him ____replying:“Why not? It’s as close to heaven as I'll ever get”.

While he could always make us ____ he was also quiet, considerate and full of wonderful ____for us so that we could do better.

When I was a child,I____ myself to the change in Dad’s loose drawer — I didn’t see it as stealing,but rather as just borrowing without a ____ to give back and bought chocolate from our local corner shop.

One day, while ____the shop with my father, the shopkeeper questioned my ____spending habits: “Now I don ’t want to get him into any____, Mr Branson, but I don’t know where young Richard is getting all his ____ from. He’s becoming my best customer — I ____ he isn’t stealing it.”

Dad ____ by looking her straight in the eyes and saying loudly,“ Madam, how dare you____my son of stealing?”

After we left the shop, my father never spoke a word about the ____. However, his deliberate____ for the rest of the day expressed everything. The way he ____ the situation taught me a hugely effective lesson. I learned that the power of the____ words can be frighteningly influential.

His____ my honesty was more ____than if he had scolded me. I also learned the power of ____ and second chances. And these lessons have ____ me a lot in both life and work.