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    Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a bunch (束) of white flowers was put to my

house. No cards came 1.            it. Calls to the flower-shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped

trying to find 2.            sender's name and just delighted in the beautiful white flowers in soft pink paper.

    But I never stopped thinking 3.            the giver might be. Some of my 4.            (happy) moments

were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged my thinking. She'd ask me 5.            

there was someone for whom I had done special kindness. 6.            a girl, though, I had more fun thinking

that it might be a boy I had run into.

    One month 7.            my graduation, my father died. I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested

in my graduation dance, 8.            I didn't care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own

sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In 9.            (true), my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the flowers with perhaps a

bit of mystery.

    My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the 10.            the white flowers

stopped coming.