Care Professional of the Month

Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro is in awe of the highly acclaimed Care Pro, who was selected for the first time in June 2022. Referring to Becky, Brenda said, “I don’t even know what to say about Becky, who has worked for us at Home Instead since 2016 and is the epitome of an amazing Care Pro.”

Brenda added: “Becky truly treats her clients just as if they were her own family members. All of them are so grateful for Becky, as are we in the Home Instead office. She works full time and is always willing to take extra shifts if we have a Care Pro who is out with an illness. Becky goes the extra mile for her clients and is just an outstanding Care Pro.”

Brenda first vocalized her thoughts of Becky’s consistently amazing care in June 2022, when Becky’s first award was announced. Brenda said then: “In my short time with Home Instead, Becky was the first Care Pro I had met in person. Around Christmas 2021, she brought in one of her clients to pick up their gifts. I remember saying to the team, ‘Wow, do all of our Care Pros love their clients as much as Becky does?’ It looked like Becky was with her grandmother because Becky was so doting and loving.”

Care Professional of the Month Maeve Tometra is a miracle worker.

The staff at Home Instead^® of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties is eager to testify to that fact. “Maeve stepped in and literally saved the client. Maeve is humble about it, but we firmly believed she performed a miracle,” Client Care Coordinator Stojanka Mikulic said. Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro offered: “There’s a big story concerning Maeve, a really big one.”

Stojanka explained: “The client, a bachelor who lived alone, had undergone a massive weight loss and was seldom eating or drinking because he did not have an appetite or thirst. He had all kinds of medical issues, including dehydration. Maeve is an amazing Care Pro who knows so much about all aspects of caregiving because she has been a nurse for a number of years. She really helped him when no one else could. Maeve put in overtime to make sure the client was improving and had a clean environment. The client was saying, ‘Somebody please help me.’ Maeve has a sweetheart for a client.”

It has been 2½ years since Alise Trujillo was first selected in March 2021 as a Care Professional of the Month at owner Michael Lammers’ award-winning Home Instead^® franchise of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties based in Louisville, Colorado. Now she is a two-time honoree.

In some ways, not much has changed for Alise, who was selected as the office’s Care Pro of the Month for September 2023. Alise’s consistent, compassionate and highly skilled work hasn’t deviated one inch from her firmly dedicated trajectory that began in March 2020 when she joined Home Instead. But in other ways, Alise’s life has undergone a major transformation.

“In January 2022,” Alise said, “I started dating a man named Sergio who I later found out was perfect for me in every facet. He has been deployed since December 2022, and he will be home in October 2023! I just couldn’t be happier to be reunited with the love of my life. It has been a very long 10 months without him by my side, especially enduring the sadness of our profession.”

Claire DeVitto’s journey to the Home Instead^® franchise of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties began thousands of miles away and more than 20 years ago. The Home Instead Care Professional of the Month enrolled for a nursing program in 2002 after taking care of her mother-in-law who had pancreatic cancer in 2000. “My mother-in-law encouraged me to pursue my dream of earning my nurse’s diploma and leave my 25-year computer programming career behind,” the United Kingdom native explained.

“I had started nurse training when I left school in South Africa but did not complete it, so it was something to which I had always wanted to return. I qualified for nurse training again in 2005 and completed my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in 2007 in England. I worked in women’s health and moved into orthopedic outpatients until I retired in 2016,” Claire said.

“Caring for patients was always something I enjoyed. As a fulltime working mother of three, I have always kept busy. My children now live in Canada, New Zealand and here. With six grandchildren among them, I love to travel to see them regularly. I also love to visit my mum in the United Kingdom. She lives near my sister.”

Long before Care Professional of the Month Jan Cathey joined Home Instead^® of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties, Jan already had successfully handled the challenges of three difficult home-care situations after taking the initiative as an unpaid caregiver. “I never previously worked as a professional caregiver before I joined Home Instead,” the New Mexico native said, “but I have a lot of hands-on experience.”

In Jan’s first challenge, her next-door neighbor was diagnosed with cancer and was bedfast for more than six months before she passed away. The neighbor’s 75-year-old husband was her primary caregiver, and Jan helped him. More than just neighbors, the couple were Jan’s good friends. “Besides taking lots of food over at least three days a week,” Jan recalled, “I would tell the husband to take a break for the day, and I would completely take care of his wife.”

When Home Instead^® Care Professional of the Month MaryLee Vice was nearing her 12^th birthday, her mother asked MaryLee what she wanted for a gift. MaryLee said, “Foster kids.” It was one of the earliest signs in MaryLee’s life that she simply wanted to help others. As a result, MaryLee’s parents moved forward with the idea.

“My parents got their foster-care license and took classes, and we had a lot of extra kids in our home during the following years. I think it was in my DNA to want a large family, and to want to share our love and blessings beyond our immediate fold. Our parents volunteered in the Boulder and Lafayette communities, and their generosity benefited others beyond our house,” recalled MaryLee, who, as an adult, gained senior-care experience in nursing homes, assisted living and home-health care as a licensed CNA, and with agency placement of patients and clients.

For the record, Lynette was honored as Care Professional of the Month in April 2007, June 2013, June 2016 and now May 2023. In previous years, Lynette reminisced about a drastic career change more than 18 years ago, when she joined Home Instead of Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties.

“I was going through the motions of a full-time office job, feeling more overwhelmed than fulfilled. After 23 years with the company, I was sitting at a desk and making a lot of decisions but not making a lot of difference. I heard a social-change speech about working at a mundane job and afraid to make a change. I felt a calling, stronger than myself, to make a meaningful change. It is powerful when you feel something that strong churning up inside,” said Lynette, a former health-insurance manager who spent 34 years in the industry before joining Home Instead in May 2005. 

“The feeling was intense when I made the decision to leave my ‘forever’ job and go into full-time caregiving. When I announced at an office staff meeting I was leaving for senior care, I got a lot of stares and disbelief. I emphasized I wanted to feel like I was making a difference and doing something with a glad heart. 

After six months with Home Instead, Holly became a part-time family caregiver for her grandmother, who has dementia. “By applying the experience of working with my Home Instead clients,” Holly said, “I felt confident in my redirecting skills and how to fulfill my grandmother’s quality of life needs. It also made me understand why these families sometimes need respite, since caring for your family takes a lot of patience. I am grateful I have gotten to experience this head-on in my life and I want to utilize all of these experiences to make me a better caregiver and granddaughter.” 

Holly added: “My favorite aspect of my job is simply getting to know my clients. I love hearing about their backgrounds and all the life they have gotten to live. It’s incredible how much their stories and life experiences have taught me and given me lifelong skills I may have never learned without their input.” 

Care Professional of the Month Kelly said “I have been told I have a gift for helping people in need. I seem to be able to communicate on the level of the client for whom I am caring. I try to find out their interests, discuss their pictures and families, cook their favorite meals or occasionally go out to their favorite eating spots if they’re able to do so. I like to take them into the Home Instead office at Christmas to meet the staff. I try to surprise my clients with something different for the day.” 

Praising Kelly, Home Instead Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro said: “She is an all-around great person with a contagious smile and laugh. I don’t think she has ever had a bad day, or she doesn’t show it.” Another Home Instead staff member said: “Kelly is unfailingly positive and has an unparalleled sense of humor. If anyone could make it through a conversation with Kelly without smiling, it would be an amazing first.”

Eight months after Petey H. joined Home Instead^® in Louisville, Colorado, she was honored as the franchise’s Care Professional of the Month, the office’s highest employee honor. Seven months earlier, Petey, a humble perfectionist, wasn’t sure she was cut out for professional senior care. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Things just can’t go 100 percent the way a Care Pro would want, and perfection is far from the goal.

“About a month into the job, Petey tried to resign because she said she wasn’t sure she was cut out to be in professional senior care. Our franchise owner, Mike Lammers, quickly talked her out of it, and she’s continued to do a fabulous job since,” Home Instead Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro said.

Care Professional of the Month Anne Wenzel’s journey from family caregiver to volunteer caregiver to private-duty caregiver and finally to a professional included an amazing number of twists and turns.

As a family caregiver, Anne took care of her former mother-in-law before the start of COVID-19 in 2020. Anne’s former mother-in-law, 95, was living with her daughter and son-in-law, who both worked full time, so Anne’s family caregiving assistance was a godsend. Five years ago, Anne’s former mother-in-law lost her husband of 70 years, and the elderly woman  never recovered from that loss.

Then, several years ago, Anne became a volunteer peer counselor with the Longmont Senior Center in a program that matches volunteers with seniors who need emotional support, which is done by simply listening. “Oftentimes a client was housebound and lonely,” Anne said, “so a visit from one of us volunteer peer counselors was the highlight of his or her week.”

When named Care Pro of the Month, Karen was a bit astounded. “Why me? I’ve been with Home Instead all these years. Are they worried I am going to leave?” she said with a laugh. “Actually, Doug and I have talked about retirement. We are at that age, but Doug enjoys his job as an enterprise software solution sales leader, so he has decided to continue working at least another year. I will probably retire when Doug retires. Then, no more of these stories … Woo-hoo!”

Recalling her decision to apply for the Home Instead job in 2007 brought back thoughts of Karen’s late grandparents. Karen said: “One grandfather had Alzheimer’s and ended up in a nursing home where he died. But my grandmother was mentally sharp and lived to 101. Putting your compassion into action is one thing, but the job’s demands also are another thing. In that newspaper story 15 years ago, I read about Home Instead’s job flexibility. That was a good thing for my family. The bottom line is that I always have had the desire to work with people in need, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ ” Karen, a native of Kearney, Nebraska, was a medical technology graduate at Kearney State College.