阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的的正确形式。
Night after night, she came to tuck me in (盖被子), even long after my childhood years.    __    (follow) her longstanding custom, she’d lean down and push my long hair out of the way, then kiss my forehead.
I don’t remember         it first started annoying me — her hands pushing my hair that way. Finally, one night, I shouted out at her, “Don’t do that anymore — your hands are too rough!” She didn’t say     in reply. But never again     my mother close out (结束) my day      that familiar expression of her love.
Time after time, with the passing years, my        (think) returned to that night. By then I missed my mother’s hands, — missed her goodnight kiss on my forehead.
Now those hands I once thought to be so rough were still doing things for me and my family. I         (frequent) recalled the night my young voice complained. One night, catching Mom’s hand in hand, I blurted out how sorry I was for that night. I thought she’d remember as I did. But Mom didn’t know what I        (talk) about. She had forgotten — and forgiven — long ago.
That night, I fell asleep with a new       (appreciate) for my gentle mother and ___    caring hands. And the guilt that I had carried around for so long was nowhere to be found.