Katherine Muir

Home

Home is the word I hear most often during my work day. The people who say it do not mean their room in the nursing home, although the staff tells them that this is their new home. No, home to them is the place they left, often when their world changed in an instant due to a broken hip. To learn the meaning of “home,” ask the white-haired woman sitting in a wheelchair who no longer has one….

As a psychologist practicing primarily in nursing homes, Katherine Muir is exposed to an atmosphere packed with nostalgia and longing, time after time. Hearing the word “home” repeatedly pronounced by the care facility residents, it became clear to her how their idea of home has shifted into a constant yearning for the life they once had. Touched and inspired, Katherine Muir composed an emotional essay as an “empathic tribute” to her elderly patients. Katherine Muir is the Gold Writer of the ArtAscent “Home” Call For Writers. Read this artists’ written creation in the Home edition of ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal.