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FINDING MEANING | THE NARRATIVE ARC
The Universal Importance of ‘Home’
From the very young to the very old
Two recent moments told me how important “home” is, though I shouldn’t have needed reminding.
In the first instance, my eighty-two-year-old sister, who is battling Alzheimer’s, called to tell me she was packing up to go “home.”
“Where is home?” I asked.
“You know. My house,” she replied.
I gently explained that her home was being rented and that she was living in a wonderful senior community where they could help her in ways that living alone wouldn’t offer.
She then changed tracks.
“Jill, I want to have dinner with you and the rest of the family.”
I understood this, too. Growing up, we were a family that ate dinner together every night, packed with conversations about our favorite sports teams, politics, school, or my parents’ odd customers at their grocery store. We had so much content to laugh or argue about. That’s what healthy families do, I believe — laugh and argue.
Here’s an example. I was a huge Dever Broncos fan, writing the coach every Sunday night with various thoughts that I hoped could improve the team. At dinner, I would…
