I smiled gently and answered, “Because it took me three years to understand something very simple.”

She waited for the rest. I squeezed her hand and said quietly, “A home is not a place where everyone gives orders. It is a place where people take care of each other.”

Natalie closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them I realized I was crying as well. Yet this time the tears were not from shame. While my sisters argued in the kitchen about who should dry the dishes, I finally felt that this house might truly become a home.