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Recently, my friend John lost his wife Janet. For eight years she fought against cancer, but in the end her sickness had the last word.
最近，我的朋友约翰失去了他的妻子珍妮特。珍妮特与癌症抗争了八年，最终还是让病魔夺走了生命。
One day John took out a folded piece of paper from his wallet. He had found it, so he told me, when he tidied up some drawers at home. It was a small love letter Janet had written. The note could look like a school girl' s scrawls1 about her dream guy. All that was missing2 was a drawing of a heart with the names John and Janet written in it. But the small letter was written by a woman who had had seven children; a woman who fought for her life and who probably only had a few months left to live.
一天，约翰从他的钱夹里拿出一张折叠着的纸。他告诉我，他是在家里收拾一些抽屉时发现这张纸的。它是珍妮特写的一封短小的情书。这纸条看上去有点像是一个女学生信手写写她的梦中情人，只是没有画一颗写着约翰和珍妮特名字的红心罢了。但这短短的情书却是一个有着七个孩子的女人写的；这个女人在为她的生命而战斗，恐怕没有几个月就要离开人世了。
It was a beautiful recipe for how to keep a marriage together.
这封情书道出了让婚姻长久的美丽秘诀。
Janet' s description of her husband begins thus: “Loved me. Took care of me. Worried about me.”
珍妮特是这样开始描述她的丈夫的：“爱我。照顾我。为我担忧。”
John showed great consideration for Janet. Sometimes he came home in the evening to find her in the middle of one of those depressions cancer patients so often get. In no time he got her into the car and drove her to her favourite restaurant.
约翰对珍妮特体贴入微。有时他傍晚回到家时发现珍妮特正陷入癌症患者经常遭受的情绪低谷，他会马上开车带她去她极为喜欢的餐馆吃饭。
"Helped me when I was ill,” the next line reads. Perhaps Janet wrote this while the cancer was in one of the horrible and wonderful lulls3. Where everything is — almost — as it used to be, before the sickness broke out, and where it doesn' t hurt to hope that everything is over, maybe forever.
情书的下一行是：“在我生病期间帮助我。”也许珍妮特写下这句话时正逢癌症处于那种即可怕又美妙的暂时平稳期。这期间，病痛没有爆发，一切——几乎——如从前一般；这时希望一切都过去了，也许永远地过去了，又有何妨？！
"Forgave me a lot.”
“时常体谅我。”
"Stood by my side.”
“支持我。”
And a piece of good advice for everyone who looks on giving constructive4 criticism5 as a kind of sacred duty: “Always praising.”
“总是赞扬我。”对于任何一个视给予建设性的批评为某种神圣责任的人来说，这真是不错的忠告。
"Made sure I had everything I needed,” she goes on to write.
“确保我拥有我所需要的每样东西，”她接着写道。
After that she has turned over the paper and added: “Warmth. Humour. Kindness. Thoughtfulness6.” And then she writes about the husband she has lived with and loved the most of her life: “Always there for me when I needed you.”
接下来，她还翻过纸在背面继续写：“热情、幽默、仁慈、周到。”之后，她这样描写她在生命的大部分时光里与之一起生活并深深爱恋的丈夫：“当我需要你时，你总是在我身旁。”
The last words she wrote sum up all the others: “Good friend.”
最后两个字总结了她所写的全部：“好友。”
I stand beside John now, and cannot pretend to know how it feels to lose someone who is as close to me as Janet was to him. I need to hear what he has to say.
现在我就站在约翰的身边，无法装作我知道失去某个和我很亲近的人，像约翰失去珍妮特那样亲近的人，是什么滋味儿。我需要听听他会说些什么。
"John,” I ask. “How do you stick together with someone through 38 years — not to mention the sickness? How do I know if I can bear to stand by my wife' s side if she becomes sick one day?”
“约翰，”我问道，“你怎么能与某个人厮守38年——更不用说还有病魔的纠缠？我怎么能知道如果我的妻子哪天病了，我能够忍受得住，一直陪伴在她身边呢？”
"You can,” he says quietly. “If you love her enough, you can.”
“你能，”他平静地说，“如果你足够爱她，你就能做到。”
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收听单词发音 |
1
scrawls
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| 潦草的笔迹( scrawl的名词复数 ) | |
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2
missing
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| adj.遗失的，缺少的，失踪的 | |
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3
lulls
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| n.间歇期（lull的复数形式）vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的第三人称单数形式） | |
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4
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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5
criticism
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| n.批评，批判，指责；评论，评论文章 | |
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6
thoughtfulness
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| n.关心；体贴 | |
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