Preschool girl lifts old man's spirits
When Tara Wood brought her daughter to a grocery store to buy the four-year-old some birthday cupcakes, she had no idea that would be a life-changing 1 .
As Tara pushed her daughter Norah around the store last month, she 2 an old man who was by himself. The old man looked cold, until Norah shouted to him, "Hi! It's my birthday today!" The man stopped and his demeanor (举止、态度) changed from distant and serious to warm and 3 . "How old are you today?" the man asked. After some time talking together, Norah asked her mom to take a 4 of her with her new friend "Mr. Dan", Dan Peterson, 82 and then went their separate ways. That could have been the 5 of the story. But it was actually the beginning of a(n) 6 relationship.
Tara 7 the picture of her daughter and Mr. Dan on Facebook. Someone who 8 him reached out to her with Mr. Dan's contact information. It turned out that Mr. Dan's wife died in March and he had been 9 from depression and anxiety ever since. The person on Facebook told Tara that it was the first time they had seen Mr. Dan 10 since the death of his wife. Knowing that, Tara contacted Mr. Dan, and ever since Norah and the 82-year-old have developed a 11 unlike any other. "She has shown me a depth of love, a depth that I didn't know existed," Mr. Dan told the reporter.
Mr. Dan told Tara that before meeting Norah, he hadn't had one night of uninterrupted 12 Anxiety kept him up at all hours and 13 him restless. After meeting Norah, he said he now sleeps soundly. For Mr. Dan's 82nd birthday on October 20, the mother and the daughter brought balloons and presents—and, of course, cupcakes. Mr. Dan will also spend a day around Thanksgiving with Norah and her family. "If you don't take the time to 14 people, you will never know how you can 15 impact a life," Tara Wood said.
