Care Professional of the Month

When Selam “Sal” Abai joined Home Instead® of Collin County, Texas, last summer, she’d returned to the workforce after a 6½-year absence during which she had stayed home with her two young children. When she went online to search for her first U.S. job, Sal clicked on “caregiver.” With Home Instead, the position is called “Care Professional.” It turned out that Sal and Home Instead were a great match.

Sal was “a home-run hire,” earning the Home Instead franchise’s Care Pro of the Month just months later. Sal explained: “I had done this kind of work when I lived in the United Kingdom, where I was an experienced caseworker in a 24-person private care community. Some of the residents had dementia, while others had cancer or other chronic conditions. I am a college graduate, but I was in an entirely different field. I happened to like the caseworker job.”

Sal’s elder-care experiences actually had extended back even further. As a 16-year-old, Sal had helped take care of her great-grandparents. “I was comfortable around seniors,” she said.

When Home Instead Care Pro Advocate Amanda Ross heard about Sal’s entire background during the job interview, Amanda immediately knew she had a gem. Among Sal’s many senior-care skills, she knew how to handle a Hoyer lift. Sal’s valuable experiences dovetailed nicely with the needs of the award-winning franchise’s clients.

As far as one of the Home Instead^® clients was concerned, Valarie Dominguez was The One.

In June, the client asked Valarie if she had a passport. “Yes,” Valarie said, “but I wasn’t sure if it had expired. The client’s daughters had planned a cruise, and the client wanted to go. She told Valarie, “The only way I can go is if you accompany me and take care of me.”

As soon as Valarie returned home, she looked for the passport and indeed found it had expired a month earlier. “When I went back to work with her,” Valarie recalled, “I explained the situation and told her that she should ask one of her other Care Pros if they could go with her.”

The client’s reply? She emphatically said no.

Valarie added: “She said I was the only one who she wanted to take. As the months passed, my client’s health declined and she just recently passed away. She will always have a special place in my heart and will be greatly missed, but I know I made a difference in her life. She was happy those last five months I worked with her. And, for that, I am grateful,” said Valarie, who was honored as the October Care Pro of the Month. In May, she joined owner Todd Felker’s Home Instead franchise that serves Collin County from its office in Plano.

Julie Bang has a formal education in the caregiving field as well as more than five years of experience as a family caregiver. She brought both assets to Home Instead^® of Collin County, Texas, in September 2023 when she became a Care Professional. One year later, Julie was selected as the award-winning franchise’s Care Pro of the Month.

While announcing Julie’s honor, Home Instead Care Pro Advocate Amanda Ross said: “Julie gets great compliments from her clients. She displays Home Instead’s guiding principles of ‘Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.’ For this award, an employee has shown she has gone above and beyond the call of duty.”

During the summer of 2023, Julie’s husband took a new job in Texas, so their family moved from Kansas to Texas. While Julie was looking for a job, owner Todd Felker’s award-winning Home Instead franchise in Plano contacted Julie after seeing her résumé on a job website.

In retrospect, Home Instead^® Care Professional of the Month Edrina Hammond is pleased that her mother wasn’t fulfilled as a retiree and wanted to rejoin the workforce.

Then Edrina took note when her mother, Cathy Hammond, joined Home Instead of Collin County during the spring of 2022. As you can imagine, Cathy tipped off her daughter to her happiness with “her second career” as a senior-care professional. As a result, Edrina came aboard owner Todd Felker’s award-winning Home Instead franchise in Plano, Texas, in August 2023.

In November 2023, Cathy Hammond was honored as the Home Instead franchise’s Care Pro of the Month. Not to be outdone, Edrina earned the Home Instead office’s Care Pro of the Month award for August 2024. The serendipitous stroke of well-earned fortune for mom and daughter brought smiles to the Hammond family.

Care Professional of the Month Andrea can’t say enough positives about Home Instead^® of Collin County, an award-winning franchise in Plano, Texas, that’s owned by Todd Felker. “The year and a half I’ve spent with Home Instead have been some of the most fruitful times of my life,” Andrea said. “To the Home Instead ownership and staff, I say, ‘Thank you so much for having me as an employee. Thank you for welcoming me home.’ ”

Andrea added: “I owe so much gratitude to Home Instead for providing the opportunity to enrich the lives of our seniors for whom we all carry tender hearts when we serve them. Home is where our seniors are. I realize how important being a Care Pro is, and it is a remarkable realization to have. It carries the strength I have to be the guide, heart, hands, feet and voice for each individual, no matter what their level of care is.”

Andrea is no newbie to senior care. She has experienced caregiving firsthand since her high school days, when she had volunteered at a nursing home where her mother, a registered nurse, had served as director of nursing. She later worked at the nursing home as an administrative assistant and activities director. Andrea’s journey with Home Instead began several years ago with Home Instead of Boerne, Texas, a northeast suburb of San Antonio 325 miles southwest of Plano.

Home Instead^® Care Professional of the Month Lisa Freetime has worked in professional senior care since 2001, when her 23-year career began in care communities. Later, when Lisa served as a family caregiver for her late husband, Lisa credited her Home Instead experiences and training for the quality care she provided for her loved one.

An honored Care Pro of the award-winning Home Instead in Collin County, Texas, Lisa first joined a Home Instead franchise in Metairie, Louisiana, in 2011, when she lived in nearby Kenner. Both cities are New Orleans suburbs. Then Lisa shifted gears and became the family caregiver for her husband, who suffered with diabetes and congestive heart failure. He was on dialysis before he passed away in 2020.

“Although I was well-versed on care in nursing homes and senior communities, my experiences as a Care Pro and the classes I took at Home Instead in Metairie helped me during that time to bring the best care to my husband,” Lisa said. Having worked for Home Instead of Collin County for a little over a year, Lisa said: “I take care of my Home Instead clients in the Plano, Texas, area as if they were family members. I really enjoy working with the elderly.”

Tracy L. did far more than put in an unsolicited good word for Home Instead^®  Care Professional of the Month Yolanda “Yolie” Davis. Tracy L., the daughter of a Home Instead client, said: “Working as a Home Instead Care Pro is not just a job to Yolie. This is a calling for her. What a blessing it is to have Yolie care for my mom.”

Tracy L. was specific in her praises for Yolie, who joined the award-winning Home Instead franchise that serves Collin County, Texas, in May 2023. “Yolie is a true professional every day as she takes care of Mom. I really don’t know what I’d do without Yolie. She is kind, caring, gentle in spirit and confident. Yolie also is a problem-solver and loves my mother as if she were her own mother. Yolie goes above and beyond the call of duty,” Tracy L. said.

Home Instead Care Pro Advocate Amanda Ross said, “We are so happy that Yolie has been with our Plano office for almost a year. Yolie has been assisting her current client for most of that time, and Yolie has such love for the client and the family. Yolie is like part of their family. She gives such great care to all of them, and Yolie is very dedicated.”

Fikerte “Fifi” Beshah has been honored as a Care Professional of the Month at Home Instead^® of Collin County, Texas, for a number of reasons. Among Fifi’s many strengths are her warm personality that often creates instant bonds with her clients, as well as her patience and flexibility that’s needed to win over challenging clients.

“I have a client who thinks I am her close family member,” Fifi explained “She always asks me to ‘sleep over,’ eat with her and choose what to watch on television.”   

Fifi added: “On the other end of the spectrum, I went to assist another client, where there are mobility difficulties, and he thought I wouldn’t be able to move him around. In fact, the client said, ‘You are too small to move me.’ ”

Fifi recalled her quick but confident reply:  “I told him, ‘I work with my heart not my hands.’ Then he laughed, and I was able to help him move around just fine.”

Care Professional of the Month Kathy Timmons always has had a heart for helping people, especially those who are society’s most vulnerable.

Nearly 40 years ago – in the mid-1980s – Kathy worked for her mother, who ran a home healthcare agency in Wichita Falls, Texas. Then, for 10 years, Kathy worked with special-needs students as a school district employee. She also has worked in other home healthcare roles with both the elderly and young. Kathy joined Home Instead® of Collin County in 2015 and has been a highly sought Care Pro ever since.

The question was posed to Kathy: Why did you choose your career path, knowing it had its various daily challenges? Kathy replied with a six-word sentence: “God lets me do this work.”

When she was asked to elaborate, Kathy said: “God has allowed me to feel and understand aspects of care because I’ve been through some of the same physical challenges my clients have faced. Therefore, I have deep empathy for what seniors face. Yes, I am faith-based, but it’s not something I impose on others. It is how I am driven personally to help. I particularly draw strength from Psalms 91 (verse two: ‘I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” ’).You’ve got to love what you do, and I do feel the spiritual side of things, which allows me to serve with patience and forbearance when it is needed.”

Home Instead® Care Professional of the Month Deneise Germany has been helping people since she was 12 years old. Any time a family member or friend was sick, hospitalized or underwent surgery, Deneise tried to be present to provide help and comfort. “I grew up taking care of people. The Good Lord God blessed me with a gift of serving others. That’s why God put me on Earth,” Deneise said.

Deneise was the primary caregiver when her mother was ill in her early 40s, during a crucial time when Deneise’s father was working. Deneise also took care of an aunt, a grandmother and a grandfather who went into hospice when Deneise was 15 or 16. “My aunt used to tell anyone who was sick or laid up to contact me. She underwent 18 back surgeries. My aunt would say, ‘Missy, come take care of me,’ and she didn’t want anyone else around her but me.”

As her parents began to need help, Deneise stepped forward. “I was their hospice family caregiver. Dad had a stroke and was bedbound for six years. I was with him when he died. I also was with my mother, who had suffered a heart attack. I took care of my mother-in-law until she needed more care,” Deneise explained. “It takes a special heart to hold someone’s hand for the last time. Many family members can’t do it. Caring for those on hospice is hard if you feel as if it is an obligation. You need to want to be there.”

The Home Instead^® client had thought of an unusual way to spend more companionship time with her new Care Professional, Tasha Walker. At first, the client’s plan was befuddling for Tasha, to say the least, but both Tasha and the client were laughing when the gig was up.

“It was my first day with the client, when I had been with Home Instead for a few days. I took my client grocery shopping and was driving her new SUV. For our return trip home, my client was giving her special directions to her house, but I felt we were lost because it had taken about only 10 minutes to get to the store. I asked her a few times, ‘Are you sure we’re going the right way?’ She replied. ‘Yes, just keep driving,’ ” Tasha explained.

“We seemingly were lost. I tried to turn on my phone GPS, but the battery was too low. I had problems at first with finding the correct charging port. Then I stopped at a store to buy an adapter. Something in my mind told me to check the SUV’s arm rest, where finally I found a charging port that worked. It turned out we had gone about 40 minutes out of the way of our destination, her home. Together, we laughed out loud.”