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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.
