Coming Home

The well-known phrase “Home is where the heart is” really says it all! Coming home is synonymous with feelings and emotions. Those feelings may be good or bad, but what they put into play are the people, he places, the activities that we want or need to recall, to replay, to reminisce about. You can go home without physically doing so. They memories do it for us. The unpleasant feelings that may arise thinking of home could be helped by a trip there to bring about closure. Returning home may bring a new interpretation of our unpleasant situation based upon our ongoing personal growth.

However, the most outstanding personal excitement about coming home involves the unbelievable thoughts and feelings that we conjure up in our mind of what went on at home, that place where we are going. The anticipation is just about as rewarding as the actual occurrence.

We know coming home doesn’t just relate to the houses in which we grew up where we recall every nook and cranny. The family and activities and even conversations and the effect that all of this had on us. Home coming at high school and college always brings interesting feelings. They are often approached with fear and trepidation on how we look now and are we successful enough. That goes out the window when we hear the band play the alma mater and we see old classmates in the next row. The church invitation for a 25th anniversary celebration gets us a little teary when we recall our own wedding there and the anger long ago at the boy who threw sand at the church picnic. I personally enjoy so much a yearly class reunion that gives me an opportunity to go back to the school of nursing from which I graduated to walk the halls and think of what there—the patients, staff and students that I taught.

Above all, we think of the service men to whom coming home means everything. It lights the fine of memories. It brings them through intense physical and emotional trauma. Coming home is truly going where the heart is!

Fritzie Sipher Schifferly ’46 | Education
Waterville, Ohio