Thirteen years ago, we pulled into the driveway, excited and proud, and ______ up our kids for photos. It was a big day, but we had no idea how it would______our lives. We knew it______us as uncool. But we had become minivan（小型货车）people.

That van is linked to so many great_______——camping trips, a gang of 10-year-old boys ______in for a big day at Canada's Wonderland theme park and one three-week holiday to the east coast, full of long ______ and classic rock______on cassette tapes.

I laughed my head______while going out with friends, and cried my eyes out at the______of a loved one while traveling on those four trusty wheels.

I know it's just a ______. The first time, ______ , I watched my teenagers drive off in it alone, I realized they were growing up together.

There were days when it drove me ______ , too. On cold winter mornings, the sliding doors would _______shut. Anyone who wanted to sit in the back seats had to climb in ______the front. Still, we've ______ our van for as long as possible. It never ever let us clown, even as the ______ bills got a little bigger each year and we faithfully ______ whatever was needed to keep it on the road safely.

Yesterday we finally made the decision. It was time to find a newer, smaller, more ______ replacement.

Saying ______ is never easy. As we close the minivan chapter of our lives, my heart is a little ______ -not just for the much-loved metal box on wheels that we've driven for more than a decade, but for the days, months and years that passed by so quickly.

The story of our minivan is the story of our family.

William Weaver was one of 14 black students integrating (使融入) the all-white West High School. A teacher told him that he “didn’t belong here”. He had a test and the teacher _________ him and then just took the paper away and said, “Time is up.” The first report card he got was _________ F’s. So he started to think maybe he didn’t belong here and that he was _________.

One evening he was at home and Edward Hill, his science teacher from the black school, came by to visit. Weaver told Mr. Hill that the white school was trying to _________ him away. Mr. Hill asked Weaver to come to his old school after _________. So every day waiting for him would be Mr. Hill with other teachers and they taught him. Once he got past those F’s, he stopped _________ himself. But no matter what he did, he was never _________ at that school. Weaver never had a _________ with a counselor (辅导员) about going to college. But, to his _________ he got a letter telling him he had been awarded a scholarship. Weaver accepted it and went on to ____________ Howard University.

Many years ____________, Weaver came across Mr. Hill and told him, “Mr. Hill, if I had not gotten that ____________, I don’t know what would have happened. And I don’t know ____________ I got the scholarship because I never even applied for it, Mr. Hill said, “I know, because I filled in the ____________ and sent it off for you.” So Mr. Hill stepped in and changed his life, ____________ at that time Weaver didn’t realize how much he was being helped.

Would you buy something you can’t see? That’s the question posed by two New York brothers who’ve lost much of their________to a rare eye disorder and have________their lives— and livelihoods — to raising money for a cure.

Bradford Manning, 35, and his 30-year-old brother, Bryan, are the________of the clothing brand Two Blind Brothers. They’ve________a strategy that’s helped raise $700,000 for the cause: selling mystery boxes full of a variety of their soft shirts, comfortable________, knit beanies and sweaters.

And the sale of their boxes, costing from $30 to $200, is now a social________phenomenon. Among their customers are parents with vision-damaged children. Some have________unboxing videos on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. The two turn over all________from the boxes to groups like the Foundation Fighting Blindness, funding research on eye diseases like the one they’ve________from.

Brad was diagnosed at 7 after a doctor________that Stargardt disease was the cause of his________ vision. The doctor told the mother to “take him   ________, get him a magnifier (放大镜) and maybe teach him Braille”, and “good luck”. But the parents would not give up their son. Today, the two brothers’ condition has ________, leaving both with peripheral (外围的) vision.

The brothers________their story in every mystery box, with some special thanks.“When people shops blind, they prove something________,” they write. “They prove that genuine trust is real.”