Divine Guidance, Fiancée Led Gerry to Home Instead
Gerry Waddle Jr. is sensitive to all things spiritual, including occupations and relationships. He had grown weary after spending 13 years as a certified athletic trainer. Gerry tried another job before his girlfriend – now his fiancée – pointed him toward the award-winning Home Instead® franchise that serves Mooresville, Statesville and Taylorsville and surrounding areas.
“My fiancée knew I had a background in healthcare and that I loved helping people, so she suggested Home Instead. I looked into it, and I felt Home Instead was where God wanted me,” said Gerry, whose journey to Home Instead is well worth examining.
As a certified athletic trainer, Gerry took care of college-age athletes’ injuries and illnesses. “I loved helping people get back into their competitive arenas, but the job took its toll. With the extreme demand of hours and travel involved, I became burned out. I stepped away and took a year off to be part of a ministry and find myself,” Gerry explained.
He ended up working for a retail pharmacy and hated it, so Gerry decided – just before COVID-19 rocked the world – to go back to school to learn medical coding and billing. With that new goal in mind, Gerry needed a flexible job to pay the bills while taking classes.
Gerry admitted: “I was a certified athletic trainer, of course, but I had never been a professional caregiver. I did have some family caregiving experience when I helped look after my mother and father before their passing. My mom passed of emphysema when I was 21, and my dad passed after battling cancer some 10 years later.”
In late October 2020, Gerry joined the Home Instead franchise owned by Tracey and Creighton Gibson. Nearly 10 months later, Engagement Coordinator/CNA Darla Corah announced Gerry’s honor as the August CAREGiver of the Month. Darla said: “One of the many things that stands out most about Gerry is that he is the only CAREGiver who can get a client to continue to try to stand up. Most days, the client is happy to be in the Hoyer lift, but Gerry says, ‘No, we have to stand up and strengthen your legs,’ and the client does it. Gerry has a way about him that is very pleasant and fun, a compassionate personality the clients really enjoy.”
In Darla’s judgment and that of the other staff members, it isn’t hard to see that Gerry lives the Home Instead guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
Gerry said he enjoys being able to help people again and loves to see the excitement and gratitude on the clients’ faces when he does. The athletic trainer-turned-CAREGiver said: “Being able to help seniors push for their independence is absolutely amazing. It’s very rewarding to earn the trust of the clients as well as their family members.”
For Gerry, touching lives impacts their souls, whether he is providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if he is offering emotional support in a companionship role. Gerry is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide, and he has helped add to those numbers because of his strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose and core values. Those core values are: “Honor God in all we do; Treat each other with dignity and respect; Encourage growth in ourselves and others; Build value in our service to others.”
As far as pinpointing special caregiving moments, Gerry offered: “It is difficult to give just one favorite account because memorable situations occur so frequently. But one day really stands out. My client’s daughter-in-law, who is a godsend herself, wanted to photograph her father-in-law and me and put the photo on his GrandPad, supplied by Home Instead. As it turned out, the photo was part of the franchise’s CAREGiver Appreciation Day.”
He added: “The daughter-in-law told me how thankful she was for me and how I’ve helped her family in so many ways. She expressed how nice it was for them to know her senior loved one was in good hands and she had no worries when I was around. Now that day was a great day!”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (704) 924-9909 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
