Settling in: A rush of nostalgia for my Bangkok home


I caught of glimpse of our home in Bangkok and was hit by an unexpected wave of nostalgia.

I haven't been feeling too sentimental about moving to a new country. But then again, I still have my Thai mobile number and bank accounts. I continue to volunteer with BAMBI. And I haven't quite brought myself to exit the chat groups and email lists for my Bangkok choirs.

Call it denial if you will, but mentally, I haven't quite left Bangkok.

So. My nostalgia.

We have the fortune to semi-maintain our Bangkok home and Husband was staying there on a quick business trip back to the City of Angels.

It was just a glimpse of our kitchen table and the old teak-wood floors behind Husband as we video-called each other.

Suddenly, it brought back images of my kids crawling around those floors as babies, of my parents and my late-MIL when they visited, the jolly dinners with friends and family crammed around our small kitchen table, my routine of crawling out of bed at 5:45am to make the kids their lunchboxes...

It reminded me that this house was a special one.

It was where I first moved in with Husband, where we got married, where we greeted our babies, where my MIL passed her last months of life (as did Husband's Thai grandmother and uncle next doors), where we were surrounded by extended family and child-loving household staff.

I've moved several times but I can't recall ever being nostalgic for a previous home since becoming an adult. Maybe because my parents' house has remained unchanged for 30 years and has been my stable constant while I moved countries.

It's a comfort to know that this Bangkok house might be another reassuring constant for our family, an emotional anchor and reminder of a significant era in our lives. I'm grateful that it won't be completely gone from our lives just yet.

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