Caring for my grandmother
My journey into caregiving began nearly 30 years ago with someone very special to me — my grandmother.
After suffering a massive stroke, my grandmother was left paralyzed on her left side and was facing the possibility of being placed in a nursing home. At the time, I was married and raising two young children, just 3 years old and 18 months old, and our family was living in a small single-wide trailer.
We made the decision to move into my grandmother's two-story home so that she could remain surrounded by family, in a home she knew and loved. I became her full-time, live-in caregiver.
For the next five years, caregiving became a central part of my everyday life. Her care required around-the-clock attention and included assisting with transfers in and out of her wheelchair, bathing and personal hygiene, toileting, meal preparation, wound care, pain management, and transportation to medical appointments.
I also accompanied her to her medical appointments, helped with her physical and occupational therapy, took her grocery shopping, and participated in recreational activities with her. I managed her laundry, housekeeping, and many of the day-to-day responsibilities necessary to help her remain safely and comfortably at home — all while raising my own two young children.
I remained by her side throughout the final five years of her life, including her decline, until she passed away.
That experience changed me. My grandmother taught me that caregiving isn't simply about helping someone with their physical needs. It's about patience. It's about noticing the little things. It's about protecting someone's dignity when they are at their most vulnerable. And most importantly, it's about making another person feel safe, valued, and cared for.
From family caregiving to a lifelong calling
My passion for caregiving continued to grow throughout the years.
After my daughter graduated from high school, she and I took Home Health Aide certification classes together. It was meaningful to me to share that experience with her while continuing to build the professional knowledge and skills that had first developed through caring for my grandmother.
Over the years, I have also had the privilege of caring for people outside of my family.
One of those experiences was caring for a close friend who was a veteran and had no family or friends available to provide the support he needed. He was experiencing significant memory difficulties as well as severe physical instability that made everyday life increasingly challenging and unsafe.
For approximately a year, I became an important part of his support system. I assisted him with his daily needs at home and helped provide the structure, companionship, and support he needed to navigate everyday life.
I accompanied him to doctors' appointments and hospitalizations, serving as his advocate and helping communicate his needs and concerns when he was unable to do so for himself. I helped coordinate the practical details of his care and worked to make sure his needs were being heard and addressed.
As his needs changed, I also helped him transition into a safer and more appropriate living environment. Eventually, his memory difficulties and physical instability progressed to the point that it was no longer safe for him to live alone. I helped advocate for him and supported the process of transitioning him into a memory care facility where he could receive the supervision and level of care he needed.
That experience taught me that caregiving isn't only about providing hands-on assistance. Sometimes it means being someone's voice when they cannot advocate for themselves. Sometimes it means recognizing when a person's needs have changed and helping navigate the difficult decision to move to a safer level of care.
Caring through the final chapter of life
Another deeply meaningful experience in my caregiving journey was being entrusted to care for a friend's loved one who was battling pancreatic cancer.
I became her end-of-life caregiver during an incredibly vulnerable and difficult chapter of her life. Being present for her and providing care during that time taught me even more about the importance of comfort, compassion, patience, and dignity.
End-of-life care is about much more than physical assistance. It is about being present. It is about creating comfort and reassurance when someone is facing some of the most difficult moments of their life. It is about treating that person with dignity and allowing them to feel seen, heard, respected, and cared for.
Being trusted with that responsibility is something I will always consider an honor.
The heart behind Simply Cherished Care
Today, I have brought decades of personal, hands-on caregiving experience together with my professional training to create Simply Cherished Care LLC.
My philosophy is simple: quality caregiving should feel personal.
I believe the people we care for deserve more than someone who simply comes into their home and completes a checklist of tasks. They deserve someone who takes the time to know them — their routines, their preferences, their personalities, their stories, their concerns, and the little things that make them feel comfortable.
Throughout my years of caregiving, I have learned that every person is different. Every family has different needs. And every stage of life requires its own kind of compassion and support.
Whether someone needs assistance with daily activities, companionship, personal care, help navigating appointments, support following a hospitalization, or simply someone dependable to be there when family cannot, I believe caregiving should always be delivered with patience, respect, and genuine compassion.
At Simply Cherished Care LLC, my goal is to provide personalized, attentive care that allows individuals to remain as comfortable and independent as possible in the place they call home, while giving their families greater peace of mind.
