I went to a great presentation put on the Benjamin Moore showroom couple weeks ago for author and cancer survivor Jennie Nash’s latest book “the last beach Bungalow.” She used many vivid and brilliant colors for her presentation. She also reflected upon how her personal experiences of living with and surviving cancer had played into constructing this story of a cancer survivor who became obsessed with winning the right to buy the last bungalow.

What really struck me is the inspiration of her book. She told a story that she was trying to buy this home but lost in the bidding war. Many days later she found out that the home was purchased by the real estate agent who bid against his own clients. Needless to say, he lost his license. One morning when she was chaperoning her child’s field trip, she realized the agent was the other parent chaperoning. She walked up to him and said: “You don’t know me but you bought my house!” Much to her surprise, the man replied: “But I do know you, my wife has cancer and we read your books.” When asked why he did what he did, doing something so scandalous that he knew he would lose his license, he replied: “This is my wife’s dream home. This is the place where she wants to live and die. I would do anything to get the house for her.”

The story really moved me. Working in the real estate industry where my job is packaging people’s houses into products for sale, there are a lot of emotional detachment involved in the process. We sometimes lose sight of what ultimately is important — the emotions attached to a home.