be close to home

To affect one deeply and emotionally because one can strongly relate to it. My patient's lung cancer diagnosis is close to home for me because my uncle recently died of the same thing. Because I was bullied as a kid, I teared up when my son told me that he gets teased at school—it's just so close to home. My parents had a very contentious divorce, so the tense relationship between my husband and his ex-wife is pretty close to home.