[00:07.11]Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents.
[00:13.12]They don’t act in the romantic ways that I read in books or I see on TV.
[00:19.35]In their opinion,“I love you”is too luxurious for them to say.
[00:24.82]Sending flowers to each other on Valentine’s Day
[00:28.93]is even more out of the question.
[00:31.61]One day, my mother was sewing a quilt.
[00:35.39]I silently sat down beside her and looked at her.
[00:39.05]“Mom, I have a question to ask you,”I said after a while.
[00:44.43]“What?”she replied, still doing her work.
[00:47.93]“Is there love between you and Dad?”I asked her in a very low voice.
[00:53.93]My mother stopped her work and raised her head with surprise in her eyes.
[00:59.07]She didn’t answer immediately.
[01:01.71]Then she bowed her head and continued to sew the quilt.
[01:05.42]I was in a great embarrassment and I didn’t know what I should do.
[01:10.23]But at last I heard my mother say the following words:
[01:14.72]“Susan,”she said thoughtfully,“Look at this thread.
[01:20.30]Sometimes it appears, but most of it disappears in the quilt.
[01:25.98]The thread really makes the quilt strong and durable.
[01:30.14]If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread.
[01:34.42]It can hardly be seen anywhere or anytime,
[01:38.52]but it’s really there. Love is inside.”
[01:42.18]I listened carefully but I couldn’t understand her until the next spring.
[01:48.09]At that time, my father suddenly got seriously ill.
[01:53.67]After they got back from the hospital, every day in the morning and dusk,
[01:59.76]my mother helped my father walk slowly on the country road.
[02:03.59]It seemed they were the most harmonious couple.
[02:08.29]Along the country road,
[02:10.68]there were many beautiful flowers, green grass and trees.
[02:14.74]The sun gently glistened through the leaves.
[02:17.81]All of these made up the most beautiful picture in the world.
[02:22.30]After two months he still couldn’t walk by himself.
[02:27.18]All of us were worried about him.
[02:29.74]“Dad, how are you feeling now?”I asked him one day.
[02:35.20]“Susan, don’t worry about me.”he said gently.
[02:41.02]“To tell you the truth, I just like walking with your mom.
[02:45.64]I like this kind of life.”
[02:47.82]Reading his eyes, I knew he loves my mother deeply.
[02:52.42]Once I thought love meant flowers, gifts and sweet kisses.
[02:58.11]But from this experience,
[03:00.13]I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life.
[03:04.67]Love is inside, making life strong and warm...
