Home

There are many, many songs and phrases about home and how important it is.  Between my first day of kindergarten and my last day of high school, I attended seven different schools and move thirteen times.  Some of those moves included moving back to Grandma's at different times.  No matter how many places we lived, home was Grandma's house.  It wasn't just us.  Anytime anyone needed a place to stay for a short while or a long while, they had it.  Even when a teenager shows up on her doorstep unannounced who needed a place to live for four years so she could go to high school at "home".  I need to pause and thank my Mom here.  I know it was a tough decision, but as a parent you do what's best for your kids at the time.  Mom unselfishly sent me to NY to live with Grandma to go to high school there with my old friends and most of all stability. Thanks Mom, I love you.  Aunt Lin pulls up in the driveway and says, "Here ya' go" and Grandma in all her infinite grace, had a moment of surprise and just took me in.  I love my grandparents for giving up their fairly new retirement to raise another teenager.  Thanks!

At 45 years old and married for 19 years, Jimmie still corrects me when I say "I'm going home" when we travel to NY.  I can't help it.  I love my home with my boys and it is home, but HOME will always be where Grandma is.