Retired Firefighter Just Can’t Stop Helping People
For a long time, Floyd Brown was in the business of saving people. He worked for the Baltimore City Fire Department as a firefighter, rescuer and paramedic. While Floyd’s soul truly is wired to help others, people who know him will tell you that his immense reservoir of compassion comes from his parents, especially his mother. After the Army veteran retired from the fire department, he started looking for a job where he could use his compassion.
“I got bored and wanted a part-time job and someone told me about Home Instead®. The ‘part-time’ job turned into full-time one,” said Floyd, who joined Home Instead of Martinsburg nearly three years ago, about a year after moving to Martinsburg. The award-winning Home Instead franchise serves West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the office staff honored Floyd as the franchise’s CAREGiver℠ of the Month for April.
It isn’t hard to see that Floyd treats his Home Instead clients like family. With a grin, Floyd said: “Family means the world to me. I am a ‘momma’s boy,’ and I also enjoy spoiling my grandkids. I always loved my mother, who is my best friend. One time, when she was in the hospital, I slept nearby in her hospital room. I am blessed to still have both my parents walking this Earth.”
Floyd has been blessed with active clients who want to include him with their hobbies, and there is quite a range of activities.
“I have been having fun with my clients, that’s for sure. I have one client who wants to play golf, go swimming, sit in the hot tub, go bowling and hang out at the clubhouse,” Floyd said. “My client has been playing golf since he was a kid with his father. He played in college and was a semi-pro golfer. He really loves playing golf a lot. I never played golf, so I had to adapt to him. I figured out that he loves to teach, so I let him teach me. So, now we play golf two or three days a week. He goes to the pool five days a week and to gym five days a week. So, it’s all free for me because I am his CAREGiver, an in-home worker who supports him, so I really enjoy my job.”
Floyd added: “My other client has a farm, so we do outdoor activities together, and we also play video games and watch movies. So, you can see why I enjoy my job, and I get paid for it. The best thing about my job is working with the clients and their families.”
For Floyd, touching lives impacts his soul, whether he’s providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if he is offering emotional support in a companionship role.
Floyd’s Home Instead franchise, owned by Keith Clay, is a member of a highly successful network founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Paul and Lori Hogan. The Home Instead network is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 80 million hours of care annually throughout the U.S. and 13 other countries.
Floyd is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide, and he has helped add to those numbers because of his strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose. It isn’t hard to see Floyd lives the Home Instead® principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (304) 263-4472 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
