... Is where we were welcomed
For me, the word "home" conjures up a tiny house on a hill in rural Vallejo, near Glen Cove, where my younger sister and I lived with our mother, a single parent. The term "single parent" was not yet coined back then. She sold cards and gifts to her customers and delivered them in her '55 Chevy. She'd trade a box of cards for a huge tree that filled most of our living room. We always got a big gift for Christmas, like a little car we could fit into, or a portable keyboard.
When she died when I was 15, my sister and I were welcomed at the home of my oldest brother, his wife and two daughters. This was home until I moved to San Francisco for my first full-time job at age 17.
We lost our legal guardians within nine months of each other last year. Now home is where my husband and I live and our children return. It's so important to have a sense of home and to be welcomed.
OLIVETTA CHAVEZ
Concord
Published Christmas Eve 2008 in The San Francisco Chronicle
For me, the word "home" conjures up a tiny house on a hill in rural Vallejo, near Glen Cove, where my younger sister and I lived with our mother, a single parent. The term "single parent" was not yet coined back then. She sold cards and gifts to her customers and delivered them in her '55 Chevy. She'd trade a box of cards for a huge tree that filled most of our living room. We always got a big gift for Christmas, like a little car we could fit into, or a portable keyboard.
When she died when I was 15, my sister and I were welcomed at the home of my oldest brother, his wife and two daughters. This was home until I moved to San Francisco for my first full-time job at age 17.
We lost our legal guardians within nine months of each other last year. Now home is where my husband and I live and our children return. It's so important to have a sense of home and to be welcomed.
OLIVETTA CHAVEZ
Concord
Published Christmas Eve 2008 in The San Francisco Chronicle
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