“I have cancer,” Mom said and held me in a tight hug. I could feel her chest shaking as she tried not to _________ but failed.

For all of my twenty-four years, my mom had been_________. Strength and protection had always flowed from her to me. Now I knew it would have to _________ the other way.

Mom didn’t stay down for long. After the shock of breast cancer, she armed herself with a notebook and a pen and a thousand questions for the _________. She took notes on white blood cell counts and medications(药物)with long names as though she were studying for entrance exams into medical school. “The not-knowing is the _________,” she said.

The _________ was successful. The chemo(化疗)was the harder part. I went with Mom to every chemo_________. She _________ complained, though her hair was _________ and her toenails and fingernails fell out one by one. She joked that she could __________ money on nail polish(指甲油)and put it toward the doctor bills, even though she never wore nail polish. “Cancer can take my__________, my nails, my health and my very life. But it can’t take my smile,” Mom said.

Mom learned to share her fears with me, and it __________ an even deeper bond(纽带)between us. Yet, I am certain there were fears she didn’t share because she was still protecting me —__________ she only shared with Dad. Even in the darkest hours, she would just __________ the cancer. Mom always said, “When you look your greatest fear in the eye and laugh at it, you take away some of its power.”

Mom was one of the lucky ones. She did __________ her cancer, though not without scars (伤痕). From her, I’ve learned I may not get to choose what I face, but I do get to choose how I face it.

“I knew when I saw you, I wanted to take you home,” my dad says to me. I am sitting beside him for our Saturday morning visit. While our conversation may repeat at times or be filled with silence, sometimes I get these _______ words.

My father has Alzheimer’s (阿兹海默症病人). It has been a long time since he _______ me by my name. When he says these words, my tears _______ . There is a deep-seated _______ of a father seeing his daughter when she was born. It makes me think of a rare photo I have of my father with me as a baby. In the photo, he is holding me, with arms outstretched as if inspecting me.

Another Saturday, it happens again. He is looking at a photo of me in high school. He points to the photo and says, “She’s smart. She can do anything.” I am shocked. The emotion catches in my throat. Does he _______ the same person is sitting beside him? It does not _______ . In that moment I feel his love and it’s a/an _______ of my pain.

Our weekly visits repeat. We sit. I listen. He talks.

The more I listen, the more I _______ that his words are tied to a memory from long ago. He may _______ to find a word but he finds a way to express himself. I am ________ to be by his side when he says these unexpected words. He’s giving me what he can.

It was summer 2019 in Aurora, Colorado, when CBS News first met Finn Lanning, a math teacher, and Damien, his student who always stood out.

Lanning was astonished when Damien told him he was not coming back to _______. He sat Damien down and found out what his story was. He learned that Damien had a _______ in heart and was in foster (寄养) care because social services couldn’t find a foster family willing and able to meet his medical needs. He was _______ to leave school and move into a hospital.

But the real _______ was that Damien needed a transplant desperately. A lot of times it’s _______ to get a transplant if someone doesn’t have a stable home to return to after surgery.

“It _______ me like a ton of bricks. I mean, you just can’t sit across from somebody you care about and hear them say something like that and know that you have room to help,” Lanning said. That’s how Lanning became a foster parent. He _______ Damien even though he’d been a confirmed bachelor (单身汉) who delighted in his childlessness.

They got along smoothly, although Damien refused to get too excited. “I’m afraid the bubbles will burst one day. It’s kind of bad thinking about that, but some people actually do that. Like, they’ll be happy with you one day and then just kick you out the next,” Damien said. Lanning told him he’s not going anywhere, _______ Damien believes it or not.

In the nearly two years since CBS News shared their story, Damien was able to get a transplant and he’s a much _______ 15-year-old. “It’s like a dream come true,” Damien said.

It’s proof that sometimes ________ do end happily ever after.