Spiritual Navigation Pointed Debbie to Home Instead
For most of her 29 years and 9 months with a major automaker, Debbie Reblin worked as a capacity management system analyst. She was knowledgeable about a number of systems while tracking suppliers’ capacities and abilities to meet her employer’s needs. Important stuff. But, she recalled: “During my days with the automaker, I was always envious of my friends who made a difference in peoples’ lives – nurses, school teachers and others.”
Then, the automaker unexpectedly offered Debbie an enticing buyout package “to retire.” When that happened in December 2013, Debbie became “a retiree.” She said: “I wasn’t really planning to retire, but they gave me an offer that was hard to refuse, so I took the buyout. I took one year to try to decide what I wanted to do next. I decided to let God be my navigator. I thought, ‘How can He steer me wrong?’ ”
One day, when Debbie was looking through her neighborhood bulletin, she saw an ad for Home Instead® of Clawson, Michigan. She explained: “It listed a website, so I got on it. The next thing I knew, I was filling out an application and took a minor aptitude test. The next day, I received a call, and Home Instead requested an in-person interview. The rest is history. Here I am 9½ years later! I have always felt God did indeed navigate me to this company.”
The job indeed has been a good fit for Debbie. On July 10, Home Instead General Manager Anne Monaghan announced Debbie had been honored as the franchise’s Care Professional of the Month. It is easy to see that Debbie embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
Shortly after joining Home Instead, Debbie was assigned to a woman who was in poor health. Her husband was her around-the-clock family caregiver. Debbie said: “My job was to care for her in his absence so he could get away for a while and get a break. When I entered the house, he would be getting his shoes on, and out the door he would go. As just about anyone else who was in the same situation, the client’s husband really looked forward to the break.”
The client didn’t like Debbie’s presence at first, so Debbie had to work hard to get her to like the idea. “I did anything I could to make her happy. Sometimes I just took time to sit and listen. Her husband enjoyed coming home and having a cooked meal that I had prepared,” Debbie said.
After two years, the client’s health decline accelerated and she eventually died. “The client’s husband was devastated. She had been his entire life, and he had gotten so used to me being around that he wanted me to stay on. So, that is what I did,” Debbie said. “His health started to fail almost immediately after his wife’s death. He was very lonely and depressed, and I would try to get him out of the house as much as possible.”
After his wife’s death, the client no longer wanted to drive. During the past seven years, Debbie and her client have done many things together. “We went to a Detroit Tigers baseball game, a movie theater and fishing,” Debbie said.
Debbie also has helped her client with a big garden he refuses to give up. “We have made cucumber salads, BLTs, rhubarb pies and jelly,” Debbie said “He has apple trees, and last year we baked 12 apple pies. We have made countless soups, sausage and sauerkraut. He does most of the chopping and peeling. I have to go to Google for online recipes. I have taken him to funerals for family and friends, as well as grieving sessions. Sometimes he just wants to go for long drives. And, of course, he wants to go shopping – mostly for groceries.”
Companionship is a key element in senior care. “When I arrive at his home, we usually sit and talk about whatever is on his mind. Through all of this, we have become very good friends. The best part is that I am making a difference in his life, and I feel so good about that! And that is what I like most about this job,” Debbie said.
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (248) 203-2273 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
