Care Pro Hazel: God Is Keeping Me Here so I Can Help Others
The Care Professional of the Year for 2023 at Home Instead® of Mount Airy, North Carolina, was diagnosed with leukemia six years ago. That was three years after Hazel Lovill had joined Van and Ann Lankford’s award-winning Home Instead franchise. Never missing a beat after the blood-cancer diagnosis, Hazel cheerfully continued to assist seniors because she maintains good self-care and possesses a strong spiritual faith.
“At 72 years of age, I am a walking miracle. I give the glory to God. On my wall at home, I have a framed placard that says, ‘Give it to God and go to sleep.’ I am going to live a long time. God is keeping me here so I can help others,” said Hazel, who has managed to avoid treatments such as chemotherapy by following her doctors’ orders, which include monthly vitamin B-12 shots.
“I have a great family doctor and wonderful oncologist, and I have my blood checked every four months. I did my own study of leukemia. One of my doctors said I need to stay active, take walks and take care of a dog – yes, take care of a dog. I choose not to worry about it, but if things decline – that’s a big ‘if’ – a bone-marrow transplant may be needed.”
By remaining “active,” Hazel takes on some of the most challenging caregiving situations for Home Instead. At home, she has a wonderful pet dog, a Shorkie breed. The most fulfilling part of her life is assisting others with her skill, infectious smile, laugh and unending encouragement.
“This is my calling,” said Hazel, who has been a CNA since the 1990s. “As long as the Good Lord gives me breath, I’ll continue to work. God keeps blessing me. After both of my parents passed away, I felt God was calling me to ‘stay in the game’ and keep helping others. Besides the leukemia, I’ve also successfully battled COVID-19 twice and suffered a broken foot, but I had it braced up and went right back to work. The most important thing for me to do is keep moving.”
Hazel joined Home Instead on July 31, 2015, after working for a year and a half with special-needs children in the Mount Airy area through an agency based in Winston-Salem. The company ultimately asked Hazel to work with its clients in Winston-Salem, about a 75-mile roundtrip commute from her Mount Airy home. About the same time, Hazel learned about Home Instead through a friend who was working as a Care Professional.
Shifting gears from helping children to assisting seniors was not a major change. Hazel had served as a family caregiver for her late parents, had worked in a memory-care unit for five years and had held other CNA-related jobs since the 1990s. Hazel’s father already had been diagnosed with dementia when Hazel was working with Alzheimer’s residents. “My dad passed away on Valentine’s Day in 2014. He had to go to a lockdown unit because he tried to harm my mother as a result of his dementia behavior. It was heartbreaking, but I still visited every day and took food to him before he died.”
The challenges continued when Hazel’s mother battled heart disease and then encountered a shattering brain-tumor diagnosis. “To help my mother, I took early retirement when I turned 62. Three months after the discovery of her brain tumor, my mother passed away in April 2015. As I look back, I know I did everything I could for my parents. I have no regrets,” Hazel said.
During the past nine years, Hazel pointed out she has had many amazing days with Home Instead. “I wanted to keep my CNA license, which is what I’ve done with Home Instead’s help. I have received the certification while being supervised by Home Instead’s staff nurse, Kim. This has been a point of emphasis in my professional life ever since I stopped working in a factory near town when it closed many years ago. I went back to school in the 1990s and got my CNA. I have never stopped studying and learning. I’ve done hospice training,” Hazel said.
Praising Hazel and her consistently superior efforts over the years, Home Instead Staff Coordinator Sharon Bledsoe said: “Hazel will go anywhere and take care of anybody she can. She has a heart of gold. I think so much of Hazel that I have asked her to take care of me when my time comes for care. She is a hard worker, is dedicated and goes way above the call of duty as a Care Pro. She most assuredly deserves this Care Pro of the Year award because of the challenges she has faced since she came to Home Instead.”
When asked if she has any lasting Home Instead memories, Hazel laughed. “I have a million of them,” she said. A 100-year-old client had Alzheimer’s and shared her life’s story with Hazel. “Her long-term memory was great, and she was a real corker. One day, when we were talking about the president’s inauguration ceremony, she got an idea out of the blue and said, ‘Let’s go to Washington.’ She looked at my expression and read my mind, and then she said, ‘It’s OK. I’ll drive,’ ” Hazel recalled.
Another of Hazel’s clients had suffered a stroke that affected his left side. At age 67, he was understandably depressed when Hazel came to assist him. The client called Hazel “one of his angels,” and it’s easy to see why. They would go walking together, and Hazel persuaded the client to join a gym to improve his health. The client told Hazel: “I don’t have many friends, but you’d be one of them. Thank God you came along.”
Referring to her client’s comments, Hazel said: “That touches my heart. I once took him strawberries and Cool Whip. He was ecstatic because he had never had that. People need to have contact with others, and you have to be a good listener. You have to put yourself in their shoes and imagine what kind of life they are living. He drags his left foot when he walks. I changed his attitude toward life. It was so rewarding. It warmed my heart to go above and beyond for him.”
Not all aspects of caregiving are positive. Referring to her clients who have passed away or have gone to live in a care community, Hazel said, “I miss them all dearly. I go to the nursing homes to visit them. I took homemade soup to one former client in a nursing home. I stay in touch with the daughter of another former client. Caregiving can be exhausting emotionally. After they pass away, I ask God to give me strength.”
For a client’s funeral, Hazel took a number of roses, one for each member of their 24/7 Home Instead Care Pro who took care of the client. Hazel recalled: “We were her ‘dream team.’ The client thought I was her daughter. She died two years ago. I worked 12 days in a row three times with her out of sheer necessity when we had sickness go through the team. At her funeral, we each wrote a little message to her and put it with a rose on the casket.”
Recalling another poignant day, Hazel said: “With a 90-year-old client, I rode to the funeral service with the family. I treated them like family from the very beginning. They hugged me when I’d get up to leave the client for the day.” Another client told Hazel: “You’re the best. My wife and I want to adopt you.”
Clients and their families are special to Hazel, but so is her Home Instead family. They are another reason for Hazel to remain where she is. “I love the Home Instead staff. I know when I need them, I can call. We all hug when we get together. We have become a family,” Hazel said. “It would be hard to leave them.”
