“This is my calling… I can make a difference” – Caregiver brings wealth of experience to role

People come to professional caregiving through a lot of different pathways and life experiences. For Mary, a Help at Home caregiver in Ohio, the seeds for her caregiving career were planted early in life.  

Her grandmother influenced Mary’s thoughts on caregiving by selflessly caring for five grandchildren and a developmentally disabled adult aunt. Later, a stranger shaped Mary’s views about helping people when he offered her food and shelter during a low point in her life, when she was homeless, hungry, alone and cold.  

Mary’s encounter with the helpful stranger came one winter when she was about 18, she became homeless after moving out-of-state, away from her family, without much of a plan. She wound up broke and living in a cold, abandoned house. She had no money for food, but went into a diner anyway, just to find a warm place to sit for a while. An older man saw her, bought her a meal and paid for a hotel room for her. He then arranged for her to get a job.  “Somebody helped me,” she said. “That one person made a difference in my life.”  

That act of kindness set her on a path of helping others. For example, when she was running a bar many years ago, she ended up taking in a patron as his health deteriorated – and was heartened to see his health improve with her care. She felt like she had found her purpose in life.  

“I thought maybe this is my calling,” she said. “I can make a difference.”  

Eventually, Mary became a professional in-home caregiver. Over the years, she said that she enjoyed getting to know the clients she cared for – including a woman who had retired from the military and another who had been active in the Civil Rights movement. She viewed her work with these women as opportunities to learn about the past – as well as a way for her to serve people who needed help. 

She said sometimes meeting a new client can feel a little awkward. “You don’t want to come blasting in,” she said. “You have to ease into people.” She always starts by asking lots of questions. “Everyone has a story.”  

She is grateful that by working with Help at Home, she is able to pay the bills while also providing for people she cares about. “It’s not about where you live, or how much money you make or how fancy you are,” she said. “It’s about the difference you make in someone’s life.”