After a Life-Changing Diagnosis and Housing Insecurity, I've Found 6 Ways to Make Anywhere Feel Safe

A moka pot gift remained unused while a person lived without a permanent address, moving through Airbnbs, hotels, and borrowed spaces. The person learned that home is more than a physical location and is shaped by the feeling created within it. Becoming a chef at 32 provided an anchor through the rhythm of the line, the heat of the kitchen, and the moment a plate becomes someone’s memory. Over time, worsening joint pain, fatigue, and brain fog led to leaving the chef’s line in 2020 at age 40. Losing the kitchen meant losing a sense of self, requiring a new understanding of belonging. By 2019, food storytelling through a podcast, awards, publications, and cooking classes created a new foundation.

"I received a Dolce & Gabbana moka pot as a birthday gift from my cousin for my 46th birthday - but I've only used it once, in a borrowed kitchen. Now it sits in storage, waiting for a stove of my own. That's because since 2019, I've been without a permanent address; I've been living in Airbnbs, hotels, and borrowed spaces. Over the years, though, I've learned that home is less of a physical space and more of a feeling you create."

"The professional kitchen was more than a place where I did my job; it was my anchor, and it felt like home in every sense. I loved the rhythm of the line, the press of restaurant heat that soaks into your skin and stays there, the fleeting moment when a plate leaves your hands and becomes someone's memory. The work was hard. My body's unraveling crept in quietly."

"I began to experience increasing joint pain, days where my feet could barely bear weight, a fatigue that sleep couldn't fix, and brain fog that made the precision of the kitchen feel harder to hold. Years of silent symptoms and no clear diagnosis had been dismantling me and my health before I even knew what I was losing, and it forced me off the chef's line and into a new role at 40 years old in 2020."

"Losing the kitchen wasn't just losing a job - I was losing the first place where I had ever felt like myself. Without it I had to figure out who I was when the thing that made sense of me was no longer available, and discover a new sense of home and belonging. By 2019, I had found a new anchor in food storytelling. My podcast launched and won a TASTE Award, and I was contributing to food publications and hosting cooking classes."

Read at Apartment Therapy