What Home Means to Me
Allen Lovelace
BEFORE YOU READ:
1. The noun, refrain, means a line that is repeated, often in a poem or song. Scan the text and find the refrain in this article. (Note: the verb to refrain means something completely different. It means to avoid doing something. For example, “I was going to make a stupid joke, but I refrained.”)
2. Share a song or poem that you know that has a refrain. Use the verb to refrain in a sentence.
What is home about?
It is about my Aunt Curley. She got the house that used to be my grandma’s house. She is the one who took care of her sister. That’s my mother.
What is home about?
It is about my cousin Adrian. He is my grandma’s nephew. He stays over here. He likes to paint. He loves to clean up. He loves to barbecue. He loves to keep busy. Adrian is the one who loves to listen to music. He loves to watch sports.
It is about another cousin named Donell. He is very quiet, and he has a job working at Amazon. He is 29 years old and loves to play video games in his spare time. He stays here for now, until he finds his own place.
It is about my Uncle Wallace. He is my mother’s brother. He is quiet. He stays to himself a lot and loves to watch western cowboy movies. He doesn’t say too much. He stays in his room.
What is home about?
It is about my mother. Her name was Susie, and she was always finding something to do. She liked to listen to the blues and watch African movies. It was my mother who brought me into the world. I am a writer. I love to write about family.
It is about how she always loved me. She got sick. It was something to do with her lungs. She was in the hospital for three weeks. When she came home, Aunt Curley took care of her. But my mother passed away. I think about her. I have a picture of her on my cell phone to remember her.
What is home about?
It is about how when I come home, I feel love towards my family. We were six people staying in the house. Now we are five. These are the people that I love the most. And they love me. It’s in my name!
AFTER YOU READ:
1. The refrain in this article is: What is home about? How does Allen answer that question?
2. What do you notice about how Allen describes his family members?
3. Write about your own family members. How would you describe them?
Allen Lovelace is a student at Literacy Chicago and Richard J. Daley College, both in Chicago, Illinois. He lives in Chicago, where he loves to learn and go out to places. Most of all, he loves to write.