Bonita Easily Switches Gears from Teaching to Senior Care
Bonita, a Care Professional of the Month at Home Instead® of Waterford, has a heart for people, young and old. Before assisting seniors for the past five years, her compassion and teaching skills had touched teenagers in an impactful way. For 35 years, Bonita had been a highly respected home economics teacher in a Detroit middle school, where during her free time in the classroom she tutored kids who had fallen behind in math skills.
Bonita also has served as a family caregiver. She returned to her hometown of Albion, Michigan, for a time to help her father, a highly decorated Korean War veteran who had undergone heart bypass surgery. At age 92, he’s now doing fine in Albion, where he lives with one of his sons. Bonita and her children visit every weekend. Unbeknownst to Bonita, she was getting a taste of senior care that prepared her in some ways for what was ahead.
Immediately after Bonita retired from the classroom in the spring of 2017, she admittedly “slept a lot.” That was understandable for the amount of work and emotion she had put into her teaching career. When the calendar flipped to December that year, someone sent Bonita an email about Home Instead®.
Bonita recalled: “I don’t know where it came from. I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about the medical field,’ although I had worked in a nursing home during my college years. My academic focus was on teacher education. In fact, my late mother told people how I played the role of a teacher to my siblings by the time I had reached kindergarten.”
While mulling a professional senior-care position, Bonita did not give herself enough credit for helping her father, as well as her mother, who passed away in 2005. After a period of self-reflection and feeling the desire to help others again, Bonita applied at a suburban Home Instead franchise in Farmington. She was quickly hired.
Someone asked Bonita: “With other employment options available, why did you want to be a Care Pro?” She answered: “First, I care about people. Also, at age 64, I know that sooner or later, I am going to be ‘the client.’ I feel I am ‘paying it forward.’ I want someone to be good to me, just as I have been good to my clients. That is my prayer.”
While Bonita was eager to help seniors, she still had lingering doubts about the breadth of care she could provide. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ As a Care Pro, I served as a companion at first and then worked with hospice clients. I learned many things. I enjoyed it. Then I was just doing it – caregiving – with whatever opportunity came up. I handled it,” said Bonita, who in February 2023 shifted to owner Glenna Yaroch’s award-winning franchise that serves North Oakland County, including Waterford, Clarkston, West Bloomfield and 15 other communities.
Bonita’s clients and their family members quickly have bonded with Bonita, and fruitful caregiving relationships followed. It was no surprise at the Waterford franchise when General Manager Gail M. Wilk announced Bonita had been honored as a Care Pro of the Month. She embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart” and is someone who is exceptional at her work with any client, Gail said.
Bonita has been assisting a 77-year-old Parkinson’s client whose husband continues to work as an attorney. “They had another agency before they turned to Home Instead. I keep my eye on her while doing my other duties because sometimes she forgets she needs to use her walker and might just take off without it. No matter what tasks I have, a client’s safety is my priority,” Bonita said. Sometimes she cooks for them. The client and her husband like Bonita’s fried chicken, catfish, coleslaw and fries, among other tasty meals. “I have brought fresh corn on the cob for them, including two ears for her. All my clients eat well. As a change of pace, sometimes they want to go out to eat,” Bonita said.
The client’s husband reminds Bonita of her independent, resilient father, a Medal of Valor winner 70 years ago. “Dad is a tough dude. He is not going into a nursing home, and that’s the positive attitude I take with my clients. We’re going to keep them at home if at all possible,” she said. “My son is 23. My daughters are 27 and 29, and they help me with Dad on the weekends when we give my brother a break. Our kids are good people who were trained up in the right way. Life just operates better when there is respect for our elders.”
Bonita wants to work until she’s at least 67. “I do love this work and love the people,” she said.
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (248) 886-7300 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
