why is homePage null ? after long time and possibly session timeout

[nhhockeyplayer nashua]

Folks,

I have a component... that uses the folllwing link handler

    @InjectPage("Home")
    private Home homePage;

    public Object onIndividualPage(int pageNum)
    {
        logger.info("In onPage : ");

        cursor = ((pageNum-1) * itemsPerPage);
        return homePage;
    }

Ok I run my tap5 app... but then I take off to go do my workouts... come back 
90 minutes later... and I attempt to run my app again...

so I click on one of my link handlers

homePage is null and app goes down with NPE

I dont want to infest my whole app with null checks

can anyone explain whats going on?

Best regards 
and thanks... KEN