Jack and Rose were sitting face to face. At this moment, the landlord came in and asked, “Are you sure you do not rent the house any more?” He kept silent and she only shook her head. They were going to divorce, so it was obvious that they would not continue renting the house any more.

Then the landlord began examining the house. After looking around,he screamed, “Goddamn! See how you have ruined my house? The walls are full of nails! How could I rent the house to others?"

Jack said,"The room is too small and can hardly accommodate all loads of our stuff. So we could only hang them on the walls."The landlord did not listen to him and turned around up to the floor.

Rose began looking around her familiar room. Four years ago, she became his bride here. On the night of their marriage, he felt deeply guilty to her, saying,“I feel so sorry for you for having you live in this small room. In the future I will earn a lot of money to buy our own house.”

The room was only 13 square meters with two nails on the wall next to the door, one for her to hang her bag and the other for hanging umbrellas. At that time,she threw all her stuff such as her bag and umbrella on the floor once she entered the room, staring at the whole mess and feeling terribly upset.

There were three nails on the left wall, on which he hung his clothes yesterday. After she lived in the room, he removed all the clothes boxes and bought her a desk in the spared room because he knew she loved writing and drawing.

There were four nails on the right wall that were used to fix their wedding photo frame. But now there were only four nails without the frame. She still remembered he got hurt on his fingers when trying to drive the nails home. It was her who pushed him to receive an injection against tetanus(破伤风)。

The landlord tried to pry(撬动，撬开) the nails out when complaining at the same time.

They hung all the things back to the wall.

One year, a newspaper of the United States published an announcement that the horticultural institute offered a reward at a high price for the pure white marigold (金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in nature besides golden, the marigold is brown, and it is not easy to grow the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people had forgotten the announcement.

Years flew away. One normal day after 20 years, the horticultural institute that had published the announcement accidentally received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. On that day the news spread like wildfire.

It turned out to be an old woman of over 70 years old. The institute had always been hesitating over the fact that the letter said with certainty that the seeds could bloom pure white marigold, and the need for verification (验证) became the focus of the debate. Whether they would make an experimental verification or not became the controversial focus at one time.

Some said you would never live up to the old man’s wish. Those seeds finally took root in the earth. The miracle appeared after one year: large patches of pure white marigold waved in the breeze.

Accordingly, the old woman who was always unknown to the public became a new focus.

Originally, the old woman was a flower lover. When she occasionally read the announcement in the newspaper 20 years ago, she was eager to try. But her eight children strongly opposed her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics (遗传学) couldn’t complete what the experts could never achieve, so her thought seemed very foolish.

Still, the old woman didn’t change her mind and went on working without hesitation.

Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden she saw a pure white marigold.

Cathy, my mom, whose pet phrase (口头禅) was “Never give up”, was our family’s beacon of positivity. It was not a title she earmed without concerted (一致的) effort, however. When she was only thirty years old, her husband was killed in a car accident and she was left to raise me alone.

My mom could have lived under a black cloud. Instead, she challenged herself to find joy every day. Leading by example, Mom taught me just how much one could accomplish with a positive attitude. She has taken the same approach in her relationship with her grandchildren-Max and Charley.

One hot summer afternoon, my mom and her two grandsons, having spent two hours building sand castles and collecting sea shells on the beach, sank into their beach chairs to have a rest. How they longed for delicious ice cream to cool themselves, especially the two kids!

Suddenly, my mom heard the familiar loud clang (叮当声) of the ice-cream man’s bell from her beach chair. She turned quickly and saw him briefly, spotting his distinctive green shirt and catching the gleam of his waving bell before he turned and disappeared over the dunes (沙丘).

Happily, the ice-cream man’s visit was a daily occurrence at the beach, although the lag time between the sound of his bell and the departure of his truck was not long. One must be quick enough to catch him to buy the ice cream.

Max and Charley were in great disappointment when they didn’t catch him in time that day because they really wanted to have a taste of those cool ice-creams. That was until my mom’s eyes sparkled and she said to the kids, “Never give up!” She explained to the kids that the truck might be gone, but they should be able to catch him up at its next stop. And the kids agreed immediately.