Denny (yes the bacon makers) have got me thinking. They’ve come up with a new campaign called ‘Home is’. You think up what home means to you and tell them by uploading a video, a picture or sending them a text.
I’ve been thinking what it is that makes Home feel different to every other house. Obviously it’s the people inside and the expectation of what will happen once you get in the front door, but more immediate than that I think home is turning the key. I never feel excited when turning any other key, but your own front door is like a ticket to your own personal Narnia. Just one turn and you get to escape from the cruel world and into the safe haven. It’s the feeling of those small pieces of metal touching and working together to come up with the perfect combination to allow you enter your own wee space.
I often think of Mum when I’m turning the key, as she would always call out on opening the front door, bidding hello to whoever was in the house to greet her/or not greet her as often the case would be with us telly-friendly teenagers!
When Mum moved into her own house in Galway she told me once she would never tire of opening the door to her own house. I know the feeling. Home for me is turning the key.
It was the Winter of 2004, Mum and I had organised to go and see 
As I mentioned 
After Mum died a lot of people said to me ‘Christmas will be hard.’ There is a kind of expectation that things won’t be the same after someone has died, whereas in fact I felt like the spirit of Christmas encapsulated everything that Mum was about.
