Our Home Instead CAREGivers often become just like family members, spending simple yet quality time with their Clients while they care for them. This story is written by our Home Instead of Sonoma County CAREGiver, Anne, about spending time with her Client, Annemarie. Enjoy.
The first time I was scheduled to work with Annemarie I was told that she was sweet and liked to go for walks. And that was a good description of her. For the first two weeks I worked with her, we would take walks in her neighborhood around the block, and sometimes after dinner if we had time we would go on a short walk in her apartment complex.
After a while I started thinking maybe she would like to go for a walk somewhere else. So I asked my office if it would be okay to take her to a park or somewhere else to go for a walk and they approved it for me.
So I started researching and looking for a good place that she could take her front-wheeled walker easily without a lot of problems. Once I found a couple of different locations. the very next day I asked her if she would like to go for a walk at a park somewhere else. Annemarie’s eyes lit up and she said yes!
We have tried many different parks and places to go on our walk, but Annemarie and I have a favorite park that has a little lake and birds to feed.
So now a normal day for Annemarie and I starts off with her and I cutting up some French bread to feed the birds and then we gather our things together and head out.
We drive over to the park and feed the birds while we walk around the lake. It’s a nice park, easy for Annemarie to get around considering she has a front-wheeled walker.
It’s not too long of a walk and there are plenty of benches to stop and sit on while we feed the birds.
After we return home from the park I make her dinner and clean up the kitchen.
After dinner, Annemarie and I sit down and practice some of her voice exercises. Due to the fact that Annemarie has had a stroke that has affected her ability to speak, we work together practicing saying the days of the week, months of the year and our ABC’s. She is doing so great and is now able to say “thank you” and other words really well.
After that our time together comes to an end until the next day.
Isn’t that a great story? Our Home Instead CAREGivers really bring a lot of joy to our clients and find things to do to brighten up their day. We put together this short video about Anne and Annemarie’s Day at the Park. We hope you like it too.
We can quickly provide experienced CAREGivers to take care of your aging loved one, parent or grandparent Call us anytime at 707.586.1516. Or, for more information, visit our digital brochure at http://hisc392.digbro.com.
