When Lynna Brown was 5 years old, she already had ventured out into the world of family caregiving out of necessity because her mother constantly battled asthma, which sometimes presented in life-threatening episodes.
“I was Mom’s caregiver. By the time I was 8 or 9, my father showed me how to give her shots for asthma. She sometimes could not breathe without the shots. Back then, there were no nebulizers. However, Mom coped better with the asthma because of the medical advances,” said Lynna, who sometimes got behind with classwork as a schoolgirl because she had to stay home with her mother on certain days while her father worked. “Looking back, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Lynna also recalled: “I could have been a CNA and maybe gone on from there, but I could not afford to go to school.” Her compassion never diminished. Lynna later accepted family caregiving responsibilities for her elderly parents and also took care of church members. “Mom made it to 89, and Dad was 90 when he passed away in a hospital two weeks after suffering a stroke. We kept Mom in her home until her last stroke. After we moved her, she liked her care community, which sometimes is unusual for seniors. Even though she was in a care community, I still went there and took care of her as much as I could,” Lynna explained.
After she ended a nine-year employment as a delicatessen worker, Lynna joined Home Instead® of Winchester in April 16, 2019. Because she views her clients in the same light as her late parents and provides that added personal touch, Lynna has been a hit. Home Instead Manager Allyson Starling, who works in the franchise’s human relations department and in recruitment and retention, announced Lynna’s March CAREGiver of the Month honor.
During her nearly three years with the award-winning Home Instead franchise that serves the Northern Shenandoah Valley, Lynna has cultivated client relationships and made a number of indelible memories.
Referring to a client in her late 80s who passed away in February 2022 after a four-year battle with a terminal illness, Lynna said: “She was a remarkable person who I miss so badly. I had helped her husband as a client for two years before he died. After he was gone, his wife said one day, ‘I want to go now. What’s the fuss? Why not?’ I told her it wasn’t time for her to go. I said, ‘We don’t want you to go.’ They had been married for 66 years.”
They were an interesting couple, and Lynna loved their stories. “The wife was an artist from Ukraine. She escaped the region in 1939 as World War II began spreading across Europe. She went to Poland and then to America. She had an accent, but I could understand her. She was easy to get along with. Her husband was from Connecticut. He was a sculptor who lived for a while in Spain,” Lynna said.
Pointing out that the hardest part of being a CAREGiver are the final goodbyes, Lynna said: “She was bedridden for two weeks and struggled to breathe her last day. Among others, I was with her when she died, as was her other CAREGiver, Jacqueline. She often said we were her favorite CAREGivers. I am glad I was there for her. She has a very good family, four sons, and they came and saw her before she passed. I was like a daughter, maybe because she didn’t have one – they were all boys, nice ones. I was in mourning for a week after she passed.”
Lynna, at 68, had been thinking about retirement at age 70, but she already has developed a strong connection with her new client, a 74-year-old woman who wishes she had Lynna “all the time.” The client’s daughter feels the same way. “I can get my client to eat before I leave for the day. She eats really good for me, maybe a little too much. I get cottage cheese and fruit to take care of her appetite,” Lynna said.
“With this new client,” Lynna said, “I think I’ll keep going as long as I have her. As far as the frequency of shifts, I wish it were possible to be with her more, but it is not. I have family caregiving commitments. I help take care of two great-grandchildren – they are 4 years old and 10 months. Their grandmother hurt her back and is recovering, so I am pitching in a little more. Whether they are young or old, I’ll take care of them.”
