“Oh yeah and anyway there is a comfort in a place that you know so well you can see it in your mind’s eye when you are not there.”

I nodded; I understood what Luke was saying, but I still felt that he had misunderstood my question.

“I know it’s good to visit your family home, but I’m not really talking about that. What I mean when I ask ‘can you ever really go home?’ is not whether or not you are actually able to visit the place, or whether or not it is a pleasant or even bearable experience. I’m asking you if it is possible to still have the same relationship to your parents and siblings as you did when you were a child?”

He nodded back to me, and then sat for a moment, clearly thinking about what I had asked, as if he had never really thought about it before.

“I suppose it is about what that word ‘home’ means to you. For me it is a little bit about the people and the place, but it is more about support, acceptance and love and I can still find all of that from my family. So I can and do ‘go home’.”