Fifteen Years Looking for Home

In 2003, I left my city, Rio de Janeiro, to move to the mountains of Rio, to a city called Teresópolis, at the entrance of the Serra dos Órgãos National Park. It was my first time leaving Rio as an adult, and it was the hardest thing I did: leaving behind my most favourite city in the world.

It was time. I was getting married and moving to a smaller city was in the books for us. I was also going to be close to some beloved mountains. And my most important client was in that city. In fact, I was renting their small home, up on the hills.

We set up the office in the small one-car garage, organized the house to be so cute and comfortable that it became the ideal place in my mind. I’m not a gardener, but we had a small garden, and the view from the second floor looking down the valley was wonderful.

Two years later, we packed four suitcases, donated and gave away most of our things, and left to move to Canada. Or so I thought…

Yes, we moved to Canada, but the idea of the life I lived in that small house followed me for 15 years. For 15 years I tried to find the “same” place. Or, better yet, the same feeling. I wanted a house I could feel the same way I felt in Teresópolis.

During COVID, I did it. I finally found the house—not the same, but many things are similar and the feeling? The feeling is just about the same.

(I told this same story, but from a different perspective, here: https://helenaartmann.com/2025/04/09/finding-home-a-journey-through-mountains-time-and-self-discovery/)