愛，一直有著廣博的涵義。誰在最黑暗的日子里，無私地關懷你、幫助你，而他(她)竟然和你毫無血緣之親?請不必驚訝，不必疑惑，只管用心去感受，因為這一切或許只以愛的名義……

　　Job was not a brilliant man. He swept floors for a living. He believed that 1)Tarzan was a real man, and that all those movies were really 2)documentaries of Tarzan’s life. He was the 3)butt of many jokes, yet he taught me about the essence of a “real man”: love and respect for women, honor, kindness and gentleness.

　　Job embraced life in unexpected, simple ways. He showed up for work, on time. He never 4)bragged about himself, and he loved only one woman—his wife, Molly.Job filled a void in my life. He was principled and 5)straightforward in my world of dishonor and lies. He loved me as his very own grandchild, even though he was a year younger than my father.

　　I will never forget my graduation from high school. That was a day of hopeless 6)inevitability for me.My father, who was a heavy drinker, began his celebration very early in the day. By the time we conGREgated in the high school 7)gymnasium my father had congratulated himself through nearly a case of beer.

　　I tried to be invisible within a sea of faces.I wanted to run away.Disappear.Most of all I wanted no one to guess whose kid I was.I was 8)betrayed by my last name, which began with the letter “A,” so I was the first graduate on the first row.Being a red-head gave me even more exposure, and the 9)baccalaureate speaker, who had never met me, decided to use me as his 10)audio-visual aid.

　　“This young lady, this bright young lady, with the bright red hair.” His voice rolled through the auditorium in 11)sonorous phrases, as I sank lower in my seat.Over to my left, at the door of the 12)auditorium, was a seating arrangement for the “elderly.”And there sat Molly, age 61, and Job, age 47, with all of the grandparents.My heart ached when I looked at them, wishing with all my heart that I were, truly, their grandchild.