July 25, 2025
Dear Dementia,
Home becomes more uncertain once you arrive. We all have our ideas of what home means and why it is important to us. We have dreams of what home could be like, and what we wish we could change about our current home. Then there is our faith telling us that this world is not our home, and heaven is our true home. Dementia or not, it is a simple idea and a complicated reality.
I find myself longing for home, the physical place and the memories that filled that place. I find myself longing for the people who were home. I find myself longing for my spiritual home, the parish that I grew up in and the one that filled its place after it was time to move on. Home is so many things and as diverse as there are people, on this planet. Home includes the physical structure sure, but also the items that fill the home that carry a story. Home is the people and the emotions experienced at your house or the homes of loved ones. Home is the church you attend and the community you choose to invite into your lives. Home is a place in our memory and one we can go back to still today.
You, dementia, cause this to become more layered, and all we can do is sit with someone as they long for home. It is hard to do. I have yet to perfect it. However, home is something with always striving for regardless of how you are trying to twist our idea of home.
Until tomorrow,
Kate
