Most parents already know that family mealtimes are great for children. But what may come as ________ news to parents is that these shared meals are also good for ________.

When kids are present at ________, parents may eat more ________, perhaps to ________ good behavior and provide the best food they can to their kids. Parents who dine with their kids also tend to report less ________ and overeating. Parents may avoid some of these destructive behaviors when they know their ________ are watching and ready to ________.

Researchers have also found that having frequent family meals is associated with better ________ health for both mothers and fathers, despite mothers’ carrying more of the ________ of meal preparation. Compared with parents who ________ ate family meals, parents who regularly ________ with their kids reported higher levels of family functioning, greater self-esteem and lower levels of ________ symptoms and stress. Since it’s the atmosphere at the dinner table that ________ most considerably to emotional well-being, takeout or prepared food eaten at home will ________ nicely too.

Just as for children, family dinner is the most reliable time of the day for adults to ________ and talk to others. It’s a time to step away from video calls, emails and to-do lists, and ________ connect face to face. Dinnertime often ________ for a few laughs, a time to decrease the ________ and also to talk about the day’s events and what tomorrow ________.

A man who knows how to write a personal letter has a very powerful tool. A letter can be enjoyed, read and ________. It can set up a warm conversation between two people far apart; it can keep a friendship with very little effort.

I will give ________. A few years ago my older brother and I were not getting along. We had been close as _______ but had grown apart. Our meetings were not pleasant; our conversation was filled with arguments and quarrels; and every effort to clear the air seemed to only ________ our misunderstanding. Then he moved to a small island in the Caribbean and we ________ touch. One day he wrote me a letter. He described his island and its people, told me what he was doing, said how he felt, and encouraged me to write. Rereading the letter, I was ________ by its humor and clever expressions. These were all qualities for which I had once respected my older brother but ________ he no longer had them. I had never known he could write so well. And with that one letter we became friends ________.

It might never have occurred to my brother to write me if he had not been in a place where there were no ________. For him, writing was a necessity. It also turned out to be the best way for us to get back in touch. Because we live in an age of easy communication, people often ________ that they don’t always have to phone or email. They have a choice. And that is to write.

My mother died at the age of thirty-six, leaving me aged seven. I was _________ mainly by relatives when my father remarried. By my early twenties, I had learned that my mother, who had polio (小儿麻痹症) as a young child, had not been _________ to live past her early twenties.

After the tough upbringing I've had, I began to _________ why she chose to have children when she knew she would die _________. Finally, from my aunt, I got a simple answer: My mother had always _________ the doctors’ prediction. She had done so well with her _________ issues that she thought she would live long enough to raise me.

I got a little relieved. _________ I still felt deeply _________ that my mother had left me in such a _________ situation. And then the ____________ came.

There were no words spoken and no thoughts ____________ but only feelings. I recall no background to the dream ― only the ____________ of my mother walking toward me. She was ____________ of the serious scoliosis (脊柱侧弯) that had troubled her. She walked straight and came toward me with her arms open, her kind eyes shining even more brightly than I __________ , a beautiful smile on her face. She wrapped her arms around me and I returned her a warm hug. We ____________ stood, holding each other as a strong feeling of deep love ____________ over me. At that dream moment I knew my mother had never ____________ to bring me into the world and then leave. She loved me then and she had kept loving me.

Thirty-five years ago I awoke from that dream with a great peace. My sadness ____________. I have never had a single moment of doubt about my mother's love ____________. I continue my life, in the ____________ that my mother's unconditional love is always there.