2013高三英语自学学案：阅读素材 Footprints on my heart.docVIP

Footprints on my heart Footprints on my heartI dont remember exactly when he came into my life.He was just always here.My grandfather was the most incredible person in the world.Some days Papa,as I called him,and I would go down to a little creek that flowed into river and go fishing.He taught me how to cast,reel and the scariest of all,bait a hook.I remember that what it was like to catch my first fish,which Papa called a bluegill.For the first time in my life.I felt I had accomplished something useful.I was proud of myself.Other days we had sit on the front porch in the rocking chairs he had made and talk.But the thing I loved most was when wed go out to the barn and hed make things out of wood. He made me my first rocking horse when I was four.It wasnt anything fancy,but like me,Papa believed if it came from the heart,then that alone made it beautiful.Above all,anything that could bother a seven-year-old was something that I could always talk to him about.Papa would set me on his knee and listen to me cry.He made the world go away with one hug.Whenever I needed punishment,he always talked to me about what I had done.He would ask me why I made that mistake,while any other authority figure I knew went straight to physical punishment.He was the one person who had my respect,and who actually treated me with respect in return.Something else I admired was that he didnt treat me like a girl who only related to pink ribbons and Barbies.He treated me like a person.When I turn eight,a horrifying fact changed my life forever.That fact was death.In September,they discovered that my Papa had cancer.It never sank in,even at his funeral the next February,that Id never see his alive again.The organizing six months of his sickness were long and cruel,especially to my grandmother,who could not talk without crying.I didnt konw what death was.It was too much for an eight-year-old,so I blocked it out.Whatever death was,it wasnt real to me.Slowly,I learn I couldn