After a difficult past four years during which CAREGiver of the Month Amy Rankin lost her grandmother (2017) and mother (2020), Amy said working with Home Instead® clients “is like getting a bonus family.” She added: “With regard to my Home Instead clients, I treat each one as if he or she is like a grandparent. My family caregiving experience, which includes both my mother and grandmother, is still so fresh in my mind.”
Amy explained: “I lost Mom to cancer, a life that was cut short, relatively speaking, when compared to my grandmother’s longevity. I’ve come to appreciate my grandmother’s life. Mom didn’t live to see 60. Grandma died three years earlier, at 100½. She was amazing and was my best friend. I appreciate what she went through in life because she was a nurse in World War II. She lived a full life, and she helped raise me.”
Amy was her mother’s full-time family caregiver, and she worked with the hospice services late in her mom’s life. “It was definitely challenging, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’d do it a million times over. I was blessed to be with my mom. She did not suffer,” Amy said.
She was her grandmother’s family caregiver until the final two years of her life. At that point, Amy and her mother were the grandmother’s advocates at her skilled nursing home, having visited her every day. “Before Grandma went to the nursing home, I remember taking care of her and her 92-year-old sister. If something made Grandma happy, that’s what we’d do. Family caregiving gave me the tools for an in-home caregiving job experience,” Amy said.
Amy joined Home Instead of Martinsburg on June 23, 2021, after seeing Home Instead on television. The award-winning Home Instead franchise, owned by Keith Clay, serves West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. Allyson Starling and Kristi Piotter are both managers for the Winchester and Martinsburg Home Instead franchises. Nina Eastham is the supervisor of the Martinsburg office. Allyson announced Amy’s CAREGiver of the Month honor.
“I’ve always been geared toward the medical field, and the Home Instead job fit in with my needs. While I help my clients as much as possible, my clients do a lot for me emotionally, and they do not realize it. I am happy to be assisting them. As far as client challenges go, one is hitting close to home because she has cancer just as my mother did. I absolutely love both clients. They are sweethearts. They make all the extra shifts worth it. I look forward to being with them,” Amy said.
A 57-year-old client has the most aggressive form of brain cancer, and it’s been about nine months since her February 2021 surgery. Amy has been helping for the past five months. She said: “It is wild to see what the brain remembers after a surgery trauma. She struggles with personal care and knowing her left from her right, but she can speak about a few things in detail.
At first, she called me, ‘Lady.’ Now she calls me by name and is happy to see me. I think she has improved mentally since I started. On Mondays, she tells me what she did on the weekends.”
Amy helps the client with physical and speech therapy, and Amy has worked to achieve a balance. “I keep her up with her exercises to maintain what she has. I know the reality of her situation and don’t force her to do anything. There are challenges and limitations. She needs a Hoyer lift to get into her wheelchair. I am careful,” Amy said.
Amy’s other regular client is a 77-year-old man who has battled multiple sclerosis for many years. “They brought hospice into his situation three weeks ago. He has gotten much weaker and totally needs me for transfers. At first, he could stand and pivot. He has been through the wringer because he has had a lot of fall injuries in the past four years. He has many challenges, but he is still sweet and greets me with a smile. I’d probably be grumpy if I had to go through that. I love his spirit of perseverance,” Amy said.
