Honoree Bethany: Working for Home Instead Is a Blessing
Home Instead® of Mount Airy, North Carolina, was an answer to Bethany Malin’s prayers. Bethany moved to Mount Airy during the spring of 2013. She had been a stay-at home mom with three children for roughly 10 years. During six of those years, Bethany was a single parent. She eagerly awaited her chance to merge back into the workforce, but there were a few roadblocks.
“In 2020,” Bethany recalled, “my employment chances dwindled into what felt like a fever dream. The circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic made job searching laughable. No one was hiring, and my decade-long work history was a concern. I made job hunting a part of my daily routine for months and months and months. My daily routine included asking the Lord to provide me with more patience and understanding. I also gave thanks to God for a job I had not yet acquired, but for which I was steadfastly hopeful.”
On a warm October morning in 2023, with all of her children in school, Bethany perched on her couch and scrolled through Indeed.com. She spotted Home Instead’s Care Professional post, and she quickly applied. Within a few weeks, Bethany was hired, trained and placed with her first client. “I was elated. Although I was intended as a fill-in, I ended up as the client’s primary Care Pro. I have remained grateful, and it has been nothing short of awesome ever since. Little does Home Instead realize how much of a blessing it is to me,” said Bethany, who worked for the past 15 months at the award-winning franchise owned by Van and Ann Lankford.
In January 2025, Bethany was honored as the franchise’s Care Pro of the Month. A Care Pro’s empathy and compassion are strongly considered for the award, as well as skill and wisdom for dealing with challenging situations. Bethany embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart,” the Home Instead staff said.
Bethany has been a huge success despite having no previous professional senior-care experience, and her work background was vastly different from senior care. Bethany explained: “I’m ‘a prior military,’ a U.S. Coast Guard veteran. I joined from Ohio, went through basic training in New Jersey, attended Food Service ‘A’ school in northern California and was assigned to Sector NOLA in New Orleans, my first duty station. My training was in basic first aid, firefighting, marksmanship, and maritime customs and courtesies. Later, I advanced in culinary arts, earning the rank of Food Service Specialist Petty Officer 3rd class, FS3 for short.”
After leaving the Coast Guard, Bethany focused on cooking. She had several culinary jobs and also sold cookware. Bethany pointed out: “Cooking is definitely a passion of mine. As a result, my Home Instead clients are blessed with their own certified chef who emphasizes healthy eating. It’s a joy to see people thrive on good food and even better company,” Bethany said.
She added: “In addition to being a mother, I’ve always been a caregiver in a sense. I was always ready to lend a hand to meet my grandparents’ needs. My mother had a terrible horseback riding accident where she was thrown, resulting in severe injuries to her left hand and arm. I aided in her 24/7 care, taking leave from the military to be by her side.”
More recently, outside of her Home Instead Care Pro job, Bethany has been helping a senior couple who are her landlords. “I’m always eager to aid them around their home with odd jobs. I also help them by cleaning their numerous properties in preparation for new tenants,” Bethany said. “Some of their previous renters were hoarders and left the rentals in terrible disrepair. I relish a good challenge and don’t shy away from hard work.”
Asked what she likes most about being a Care Pro, Bethany said: “It is simply knowing I’m making a difference. I am making a difference, not just in my clients’ lives, but in the lives of the families, neighbors and even my own. The experience and knowledge I’ve gained in such a short amount of time is worth a king’s ransom.”
One of Bethany’s favorite client stories involves her one and only regular client, who is her first client. “She had a bedroom that was untouched and in desperate need of some TLC,” Bethany said. “She’d always talk about fixing it up and getting it ready for company but needed help achieving her goal.”
Bethany added: “We rolled up our sleeves, gathered our thoughts, devised a plan and tackled the chore head-on! In the process, I repaired some furniture in the room and arranged it all as she wanted. Since then, she has been able to comfortably host family gatherings and sleepovers, especially over the holidays, more so than in years past. It was such a heartwarming task to accomplish. I look back on it fondly.”
