Several months ago I volunteered at a hospital. One day I was assigned to discharge (安排出院) a patient. She happened to be a physically and mentally1 young woman who was limited to a wheelchair. She was2 in her late twenties or early thirties, but it was difficult to3 .
As I was4 her off the floor, down the elevator, and out of the front hall, I couldn't5 thinking, "Oh my God, her parents must be so6 . She's in really bad shape. What a shame! She must need constant7 , and will likely require it for the rest of her life." If I were her father, I would be terribly frustrated.
Then, as I came to the area where family and friends8 discharged patients, I saw a man who noticed us and began walking quickly towards us. As he got closer, his eyes became bright and he9 , saying, "Patricia, you look so lovely today! You're finally coming home. We can't10 to have you back home! We miss you so much!" He carefully placed his daughter in his car, said thank you, and drove off.
I was11 . My eyes began to fill with tears and I just stood there for a few minutes, trying to process what had just12 . Then I began to think, "What had I missed there? How could I have been so wrong about the father? Why did he and I have such different13 towards his daughter?"
It took me days to comprehend what I'd failed to understand when I was evaluating the young woman and her father. Now I know the true14 of unconditional love, and whenever I deal with other children's15 , I'll think of Patricia and her dad.
