Twice-honored Home Instead® Care Professional of the Month Kelly Rodriguez credits her Home Instead office staff for a fulfilling 2½-year run with owner Michael Lammers’ award-winning franchise that serves Boulder, Broomfield and northwest Adams Counties and is based in Louisville, Colorado. Kelly was selected as Home Instead’s Care Pro of the Month for September 2021 and for March 2023.
“I want to thank Home Instead and its staff for the wonderful support they have given me. I have had many challenges in my life, ones that I have had to overcome especially during my educational years. One is extreme dyslexia. When studying for Home Instead’s Empower sessions, someone on the staff takes time to read the material to me. I have memorized all the small wording over the years,” Kelly said. “I couldn’t handle many jobs until I discovered caretaking at a nursing home right out of high school. I was able to get my CNA through verbal learning and testing.”
Kelly added: “I have been told I have a gift for helping people in need. I seem to be able to communicate on the level of the client for whom I am caring. I try to find out their interests, discuss their pictures and families, cook their favorite meals or occasionally go out to their favorite eating spots if they’re able to do so. I like to take them into the Home Instead office at Christmas to meet the staff. I try to surprise my clients with something different for the day.”
Praising Kelly, Home Instead Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Brenda Munro said: “She is an all-around great person with a contagious smile and laugh. I don’t think she has ever had a bad day, or she doesn’t show it.” Another Home Instead staff member said: “Kelly is unfailingly positive and has an unparalleled sense of humor. If anyone could make it through a conversation with Kelly without smiling, it would be an amazing first.”
Kelly goes above and beyond for her clients. One client suffered a recent health decline and went from part-time care to 24/7 care. Before the client went to 24/7 care, Kelly assisted her six mornings a week as the client’s only Care Pro.
Brenda explained: “We had to add quite a few Care Pros to form the client’s 24/7 team, but Kelly is by far her favorite. I think the client wishes Kelly could become her 24/7 live-in Care Pro. To use an old baseball adage, Kelly ‘stepped up to the plate’ when her client needed more hours and went from about 20 hours a week to about 40 hours a week to accommodate her client. Kelly is busy in other ways. She also volunteers at a food bank one afternoon a week.”
Discussing a few of her regular clients since she started with Home Instead, Kelly said:
- “Mr. R. taught me all of the ins and outs of golf. We loved to watch Ohio State football games and share his favorite snacks.”
- “Ms. V. would show off her piano skills and take walks to the lake, allowing her husband to have time to himself.”
- “Ms. T. loves to talk about England. We share our love for animals, especially her cat Alfred, who supplies hours of entertainment. We watch game shows and old 1950s TV shows. We look through recipe books from England and prepare some of them together. She enjoys fruit cake with rum sauce at Christmas.”
Kelly added: “Two of my regular clients have passed away, but I realize this is how life is. I miss our times together, but I feel I made their lives happy up until the end, and I am grateful. I love my job and the staff and clients with whom I work.”
Kelly has been a senior-care specialist or CNA since 1982. Years ago, Kelly was working at a nursing home in Rockdale, Texas, when she got married. At Kelly’s wedding, a 102-year-old nursing-home resident served as the ring bearer.
“All of the nursing-home personnel and facility residents were invited to our wedding. One woman resident, who hadn’t walked in two years, accepted my invitation to dance at the reception. Everyone, including her husband, was amazed,” Kelly recalled. “At that nursing home, I also formed a musical band that consisted of residents who could play instruments, even cymbals. We performed in the town parade on an old stagecoach that was our platform. A ramp was built to get the participants up on the stagecoach.”
In another 1982 memory, Kelly said: “Military prisoners were being held in Vietnam or were missing. A patient and I decided to make yellow ribbons with the names of the missing on them. We got the residents to make the ribbons, and we went around the town and tied the ribbons around trees. The local newspaper carried a nice article about it with pictures. A popular song at that time was ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree,’ which gave us the idea.”
Kelly’s travels took her from Texas to California and then to Colorado in 2019. In California, Kelly worked as an independent caretaker for three years for the Springs of Escondido, an assisted living facility. She was privately hired by people in the facility to help with the chores of being a caretaker as well as being a companion.
“I was a CNA in California, but when I came to Colorado, I decided I wanted to be a caretaker rather than a CNA. I like the feeling of being more of a companion to my clients, rather than the medical aspect,” Kelly said.
In September 2020, she joined Home Instead. Kelly chose Home Instead because her grandmother had used Home Instead’s services when she was in her 90s. Kelly said, “My grandmother had such wonderful care, according to my mother, that I decided to interview with Home Instead. I am especially pleased to be working for Home Instead. The office staff really cares for its employees and understands when there are things with which I need help. I hope to be with Home Instead for the years to come.”
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (720) 890-0184 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
