A comment from fellow blogger Suzan Khoja saying ‘Home is something everyone wishes to be in forever‘ got me thinking…

Where is ‘home‘ exactly?  Is it your childhood home with your parents where hopefully you might have felt safe and loved, or is it the home you made with your own partner and children?  Is it still home when your partner may have moved out and your children left the nest to forge their own lives?

I go along with the saying that ‘home is where the heart is‘.  In everyone’s head is that picture of home that they all yearn to return to, where they were loved, wanted and needed.  Whether or not the sun always shone was irrelevant, as they were happy whatever the weather.

You can live in a house worth millions, but is it home if it’s a place where you are not happy?  In the 1960s my grandmother lived on the third floor of a rented house that  was eventually earmarked for slum clearance.  On the second floor lived one sister and her husband, and on the ground floor lived another sister.  Nan never cared if the roof leaked, as she was happy being surrounded by her family.  Next door lived her niece with her family, and they could lean out of their windows and talk to each other across the yard.  When it was time for Nan to move into a brand new flat away from her sisters, she was distraught.

Below is one of the places I’ll always call home.  It was just a pre-fab in the East End of London, but my mind often wanders back to the idyllic childhood that I never realised I had until it was gone.  That little pre-fab set me up for life and made me the happy soul I am today.

Here I am below with Mum and Dad in the back garden of our pre-fab around 1967.

Aged 10 with Mum and Dad041

Of course neither Mum, Dad nor the pre-fab or even the street are here anymore, and it’s just my 62 year old self who is left to remember them all.  I have had many homes since, and I’ve lived in my current home for nearly 30 years, but I’d return to this pre-fab like a shot if I ever had the chance!

Where is home to you?