Seeing her burst of sadness, her father brought her to his seat. On a small table in the corner, there was a picture frame. With sawdust above blown appeared a familiar faded photo of a sweet little smiling girl, which turned out to be her childhood photo. Her father looked at her, giggled, "In the past three decades, whenever I felt tired, I came here to have a look at it, to tell myself that all the hard work is worthwhile."
她出生在一個藍領家庭,父親沒有受過多少教育,一輩子當鋸木工廠的工人。直到她大學畢業成為作家,才第一次有機會到她爸爸的工廠參觀。工廠裏噪音隆隆,木屑塵埃四起,她爸爸已經有點老邁,還在這惡劣的環境裏做著粗重的工作。
看得她一陣心酸,她爸爸卻領她到他的座位。小桌子的角落有一個相框,吹開上麵的木屑塵埃,泛黃的照片裏一個熟悉的小女孩甜美的笑著,竟然是自己童年的照片。爸爸看著她傻笑∶“三十年來,每當我累了,來這裏看看,就知道一切辛苦都是值得的。”