Never do I realize it has been so long since my father left us. I have often thought what a ________ world it would be without children; and what a cruel world without the ________.

My father was a very warm and ________man, quick to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. I always ________ my father and deeply admired his way with people.

He was in a care center for years after suffering a series of diseases that impacted his ability to walk and caused his ________ to be slow and not clear. It ________ me very much to see him there, and we tried to visit him several times a month. My toddler daughter, Kelsey, read stories to him, and he lay listening as her ________ ran wild, pretending to read words from the books she held in her tiny hands. They loved each other dearly, and he was her “Papa.”

Kelsey was only four years old when Dad died. I was ________for weeks, and Kelsey tried to comfort me. Oftentimes she cried with me or tried in some way to make me feel better. Nothing helped. I needed my ________ on this Earth, and sometimes my heart ________ so badly that I thought it might be broken because of sadness.

While we were preparing for Thanksgiving, I heard Kelsey talking to her daddy. They were chatting about Papa and how he had gone to ________and was now watching over us. She said in the sweetest voice, “Daddy, since Mama doesn’t have a daddy anymore, do you think you could just ________ yours with her?”

I sighed in relief, bursting into tears.

From that day on, my sadness ________. I knew my father had given Kelsey gifts of care, kindness and ________ for others.

He would ________ forever, in her.