Dawn Changed Career Path After Serving as Family Caregiver
A little more than a decade ago, if you had asked Dawn Wilson about the possibility of moving to a professional senior-care career, her answer would have been clear: A flat-out no. After all, she had been a successful manager throughout her work career. Dawn explained: “I had always been in management, whether it was retail, food service or textiles, but never health care.”
Then, in 2014, a hurricane-sized flurry of medical problems ravaged the peace in Dawn’s close-knit family and eventually changed Dawn’s life in an incredible way.
“My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2014,” Dawn recalled. “During that time, my uncle was also diagnosed with lung cancer, and my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Needless to say, my mom had an overflowing plate.”
Reflecting further on her family’s overwhelming challenges, Dawn added: “In May 2014, after eight years of managing a limited liability company, I decided to step away and help my mom with my family. In June 2014, my uncle passed away. Then, in December 2014, my dad passed away. It was the most devastating thing in my life. As a result, I felt I didn’t know ‘how to live.’ ”
Understandably, Dawn was devastated. “Being at my childhood home day in and day out, while helping my mom with the family, awakened something in me. I never wanted to work in health care and hadn’t even thought about it, but it turned out I was really good at it!”
Enter the award-winning Home Instead® franchise in Mount Airy, North Carolina, whose long-time owners are Van and Ann Lankford. Dawn recalled: “I started with Home Instead on Sept. 2, 2015. I saw an online ad that came across my newsfeed.” Fast-forward to November 2025, when Dawn was honored as the Home Instead franchise’ November Care Professional of the Month.
Dawn’s Home Instead clients could feel her compassion and empathy on the first day she arrived to assist them. Those are two of the characteristics that are evaluated when a Care Pro is considered for the employee of the month award. Of course, there are others. Has the Care Pro gone above and beyond the call of duty? Does the Care Pro possess the skills and wisdom to be highly successful? Is the Care Pro exceptional at her work with any client? Finally, does the Care Pro focus on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving? In other words, does the Care Pro work at getting better?
For the Home Instead staff, the answers were yes. When Home Instead announced Dawn had been honored as Care Pro of the Month, the staff members said Dawn displays Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.” Referring to Dawn’s team-first efforts, the Home Instead office personnel added: “Home Instead’s mission is to enhance the lives of aging adults and their families, and to pioneer greater professionalism within care work. Dawn has truly helped us create a care experience that’s based on human touch, transparency and compassion.”
For Dawn and her fellow Care Pros, touching lives impacts their souls, whether they are providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if they are offering emotional support in a companionship role.
“Knowing that we provide a strong sense of security for our clients’ extended families is the most benefiting factor of the job,” Dawn said. “If you do this for the money, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Financially, I’ll never be rich, but the lasting bonds I’ve embraced during my 10 years with Home Instead are something I will never regret nor forget.”
Dawn added: “I’ve taken care of the sick, the eccentric, the stubborn and the hilarious. I can’t pick a favorite client time in the last 10 years. I can only hope the next 10 are just as rewarding.”
