I still remember father spent plenty of time teaching me how to pronounce a word, how to understand something that I saw for the first time and how to be polite to others. And I will never forget one sentence my father used to say to me, “I love you, son. Say you love me, son.” Naturally, I would scream, “I love you, Dad.”
When I was growing up, I found that I had little in common with my father gradually. Sometimes we often argued about something sharply and then the argument changed into a quarrel . I knew there was a gap between us. I didn’t remember hearing the words “I love you” from my father the last time. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t honestly remember when I had last said those words to him, either. Now father was in hospital. The doctor said it was serious and he needed an operation at once, but he wasn’t sure whether my father was able to survive(幸免于, 经受得住) it. Everything in my childhood appeared in my mind. Then I called and said, “Dad, I love you!”
There was a silence at the other end and he replied coldly, “Well, I love you, too!” I cried and said, “Dad, I know you love me, and when you are ready, I know you will say what you want to say.” Fifteen minuets later my mother called and nervously asked, “Paul, is everything OK?” A few weeks later I was working when I received my father’s call, “Paul, I love you.” I was so touched that my tears rolled down my cheeks. Perhaps both of us realized that this special moment had taken our relationship to a new level. A short while after this special moment, my father finally narrowly escaped death following the heart operation. I can’t imagine that if I did not take the first step and Dad did not survive the surgery, what kind of life I would lead now.