The smell of dinner can announce care before anyone says your name.

The smell of cooking announces care before anyone speaks. It reaches you as you come in, and what it says is that someone thought about you at a point in the afternoon when you were not there. Some of the strongest signals of being held in mind are not verbal at all.

It is worth building a couple of these signals into your own relationships, since they cost little and carry more than words. Something started before the person arrives, a thing already done, a small preparation they walk into. And when you receive one, it can be worth saying you noticed, because the people who do this rarely announce it.