Traveling this week and on the airplane sat next to a woman from the West Indies. She moved to Portland 13 years ago for her husband's work, but she told me she hasn't been to her homeland in 13 years. Generations of immigrants -- 100 years ago and now -- often talk about this phenomenon. They live so far from the home of their birth. And then they never get back, due to money or distance.
That's got to be a forever grief, in its way.

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