Great advice. I've also had success with embellishing the truth, or even just putting a positive spin on the truth. I didn't leave my last job to look after a dying relative, I was a freelance on-call PA working 12 hour days. I wasn't forced to leave my home and spend my life-savings driving cross-country to live with an old friend who was kind enough to let me stay with them and only asked I help out at a soup kitchen they work at, I was expanding my mind with travel, networking, and filling my free time volunteering for a local charity whose goals I felt strongly about.

It helps get you in for an interview. Although in my location jobs are fairly easy to come by these days, which wasn't always the case.