Valerie: ‘Caregiving Is My Calling, God’s Gift to Me’
Twice-honored Care Professional of the Month Valerie Calland smiled widely as she chatted about the approach of her 15th anniversary with Home Instead® of Philadelphia, and someone asked, “What is it about your job that you like?”
“This is my calling, my gift from God. It is not a job. Helping people is in my blood, and I had a great role model, my mother. I tell my clients I was raised to help others. I helped my mother take care of the vulnerable people,” Valerie said.
When Valerie was asked to elaborate, she said she heard an expression that would best characterize her early start with helping people: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Valerie recalled: “My mother was like a church missionary in our neighborhood. When I was a young girl, she took me along on her trips to help the elderly and others who were in need. That is how I started taking care of people – I watched my mother’s example and eventually just did it on my own. I’d go to the store for them and comb their hair, things like that.”
Valerie added: “When you hear that ‘it takes a village to raise a kid,’ well, we had that village and then some. We had a tight-knit neighborhood, people who had a really good sense of community. Everyone took care of each other. We did things out of our heart for each other. For example, Mom made rolls and we took them over to Mr. Murphy, and he was appreciative. She did that for a lot of people.”
Valerie joined owner Steve Levin’s the award-winning Home Instead franchise May 1, 2008. Valerie saw Home Instead office staff at a job fair, where she picked up a brochure and business card. “I told my niece that we should apply at Home Instead. So, my niece and I were hired at the same time. Ironically, my niece, who is still working for Home Instead was honored both as a Care Pro of the Month and Care Pro of the Year. She is a dedicated worker,” Valerie said.
Valerie was first honored as a Care Pro of the Month in 2016 and again in February 2017. Valerie believes the honor of being Care Pro of the Month comes from establishing a good rapport with her clients. “We know dependability, consistency and building trust all play intricate roles in making relationships spring up and thrive,” Valerie said.
While working for Home Instead, Valerie also helped take care of her mother, who died at age 98 on June 17, 2022, three days before her birthday. “I shared the care of Mom with my siblings for at least 10 years. We kept her in her own home. We were not going to send her to a nursing home,” Valerie said. “My mother was still in her right state of mind when she passed away. She could hold a conversation and remember everyone’s name. She was a unique person. She went to the hospital with COVID-19 but survived it. She died of congestive heart failure. For the three years prior to COVID-19, Mom didn’t need much help. When she did, I’d leave work after a 12-hour shift and go straight to my mother’s house. She was still in her home when she died.”
Valerie also was involved with family caregiving with one of her sisters. “My 47-year-old sister died of bone cancer in 2003. She had been a track and field star. Her legs hurt, and our oldest sister took her to the doctor to get diagnosed, where they found Stage 4 cancer,” Valerie said.
Clients gravitate toward Valerie. After her first visit, the clients or their family members call the office and request Valerie. From the start with her first client, she told Valerie: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
What is Valerie’s secret? “I have compassion and love. I always smile. When I come in the door, I say, ‘Rise and shine! It’s a new day!’ The clients are family. I get a text from a former client’s brother every day. Another client’s daughter remembers my birthday,” Valerie said. “I was a live-in Care Pro during my first five years with Home Instead. The client never married and had no children. I was her family at the memorial service.”
After that client died, Valerie went to her second client and worked 12-hour shifts with her for six years before she died. “She was a retired research doctor who had so many stories. She had 2-year-old daughter who died, and she made it her life’s work to figure out why those infant deaths occurred. She traveled the world for her research. I feel I got to know a lot of significant people during my time with Home Instead,” Valerie said.
Valerie’s clients always come to rely on her. Even with COVID-19, she never missed a day of work because she stayed with a client who had COVID-19 and had given it to her. However, Valerie said, the pandemic threw off the normal relationships, which are building back now.
One of Valerie’s clients, whom she had assisted for a year and a half, died recently. “He was a sweetheart of a man, a former Spanish teacher who had taken students to Mexico and Spain. He had some great stories from growing up in South Philly. We had a connection that extended to our love of different music. We loved Motown artists of the 1960s and 1970s. I love to dance, and the client loved it too, except he physically couldn’t do it anymore. He loved ‘American Bandstand,’ and so do I. He loved Spanish music, too. I loved my buddy,” Valerie said.
Valerie said she will be with Home Instead until she retires. “The Home Instead staff is full of beautiful people. I have much love and gratitude for them. When my mother died, they attended the funeral and sent flowers. They always asked how my mother was doing. They are the kind of people you want to work for,” Valerie said.
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (215) 925-4610 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
