Every year, I publish this just before Thanksgiving. Another year has gone by, and once again, we are thankful for all those still here to celebrate with us, and we remember fondly those who have passed on to a better place.
UPDATED 11/21/2025
As we get older, these holidays become harder. We feel the weight of losing our links to the past while striving to stay connected to our own legacy.
This year those of us in the greater Philadelphia area, or the Delaware valley as it sometimes referred to, lost a very important link in our lives. A man who brought us all up and brought us all together. A voice that was a constant for 44 years in our daily lives, a piece of the fabric of who we are. Pierre Robert was much more than “Just a DJ”, he was music in Philadelphia! Through all the ups and downs and unexpected right turns, everyday there he was trying to make your day better, and he always did. Thanksgiving especially, for me will not the same. Pierre has been the soundtrack to Thanksgiving Day for so long now, it will never feel the same. When I first heard he passed, my first though was Oh No, Thanksgiving! Pierre, wherever you are out there, good citizen Thank you for all you gave us. You will be missed by many my friend.
A quick note: Ozzy Thanks for music
My Thanksgiving Playlist
Updated: 11/21/2025
Updated to include a new set of songs of home as well as clips of Pierre Robert from WMMR
Originally added: 11/17/2022
Special thanks to Pierre Robert, DJ at WMMR in Philadelphia, for inspiring this playlist.
My Thanksgiving Reflection
Originally published: December 17, 2019
Written on Thanksgiving 2019
I call the five days preceding Thanksgiving The Welcome Home Week. It’s the time of year when families and friends, despite being scattered across the universe, find their way home. Wherever that place may be—whoever that place may hold—it’s a time to gather with the people who mean the most to us in the spaces where we feel most at peace.
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the long winter holiday season, as we race toward the year’s end and bright new beginnings.
They say, home is where the heart is, and for the most part, that’s true. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve noticed that there comes a time in everyone’s life when they can no longer go “home” in the same way they once did.
As the elders of our families pass on, the places we once called home sometimes fade along with them. It’s not that home doesn’t exist anymore, but it becomes something different. Over the last six years, this realization has hit me harder than ever, especially since losing both my mother and little sister in 2018. I never fully understood just how much a part of home they were to me. Hold on tightly to the ones you love and take every opportunity to express that love. Celebrate those who have passed by carrying on the traditions they once held so dear. In the end it will be the kindness and the love you want those closest to remember, so share it like every day is your last. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for reading.
Keeping Traditions Alive
Preserving traditions from our former homes is how we hold on to that feeling of warmth, acceptance, and safety—the kind of place where the troubles of the world fade away. But with these traditions comes a certain sadness, a reminder of the loved ones no longer with us.
The holidays can feel unbearable in the years immediately following such losses. Sometimes, even something as small as a pig figurine or a holiday keepsake can bring tears to my eyes. (I miss you, little sister.)
Creating New Homes and Traditions
I’ve come to realize that, at some point, we become home for the next generation. As much as we want to pass down traditions, we may need to adapt them or create new ones to share with those who look to us now.
We cannot live solely in memory of the departed; we must live for the living. That doesn’t mean forgetting—it means honoring the lessons and love they gave us by carrying forward the responsibility to be home for others.
Wherever you are, Welcome Home!
Lyrics from “Welcome Home” by Rehab
Welcome home
Where the faucets drip at night
Welcome home
Where the screen door don’t hang right
Welcome home
The only place you’ll ever fight
Because you love
Over and over again…
A Thanksgiving Invitation
It’s my belief that no one should spend Thanksgiving alone. Wherever you are in your journey through this thing we call life, there is always something to be thankful for.
If you’re local and find yourself alone this Thanksgiving, please reach out and join us. Let our home be your home!
And a very special shout out and thank you to WMMR radio personality Pierre Robert for always carrying us through the week, and for making the radio station HOME for so many of us!!
For Dawn Marie Wellman and Janet A Chilson, I carry an emptiness since you left, and it never seems to subside. You are with me always! Meet you in the back left corner!