Welcome to the first post of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the PA Direct Care Workers Association blog!
Hello. My name is Danielle Frank. I’m a board member of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association, a founding member of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Direct Care Workers Association and I have worked in health care for the last 33 years.
Being a caregiver is a call for me. I have worked 17 years in hospitals and 16 years doing home care. (I like the home care better because I can give all my attention to my client).
My job is very rewarding to me. I know I can make a difference in the lives of my clients – some times my love and care is the only thing they have. In all my years of work, I have very good memories. But, being a Direct Care Worker is a job full of beginnings and endings. We meet new clients and we lose clients. Then, we start again with other clients. Each ending becomes a new beginning. And each time, it feels like a part of me goes with him or her. I have to thank my work in health care because it made me a much better warm and loving person. The strength that I have comes from my work.
As we begin this blog, I would like to share a wonderful ending memory that I have. My client was a wonderful, loving, still-young man that was terminal with lung cancer he got while working in a submarine with the Navy. We were introduced and his smile was contagious. His wife had been blinded by her diabetes several years earlier. She was cold and mean, but he never spoke to her without calling her, “dear.” Towards the end, I would say to myself, “Please God. Don’t let him die on my shift.”
One Saturday morning as I was leaving, I went to tell him that I would see him that night. He asked me to get near him and he gave me a kiss. He said, “God made you special. Remember, I will always be looking for you. I will be your guardian angel. Just look in the sky and I will be looking down on you.” I guess he knew he was close to dying. I couldn’t hold back my tears because I knew it too. I knew he was leaving me.
As I drove home, right after I left, he passed away. I got the phone call when I walked in the door. A week later, I received a nice letter with this poem:
God Bless the Caregiver
A caregiver’s life is marked by devotion
Her time is rarely her own.
Her days are a mix of every emotion,
And sometimes she feels so alone.
Her manner is gentle and ever-forgiving,
She knows all the right things to say.
Her presence inspires a “purpose for living,”
She has such a nurturing way.
A caregiver’s heart is full of compassion,
And it comes across in her deeds.
She demonstrates love and knows how to “fashion”
Sweet moments that everyone needs.
And if there’s a place where “good” is rewarded,
Where kindness and patience have worth,
You can be sure – the Lord has recorded,
All the joy that she’s spread on this earth!
I framed the poem and I look at it every day. I know he is watching over me and protecting me. My life is to be a caregiver and I’m so proud of it. I hope that you are proud too, because what you do is so important and valuable for the community. May this blog be the beginning of many wonderful things.
Hello. My name is Danielle Frank. I’m a board member of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association, a founding member of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Direct Care Workers Association and I have worked in health care for the last 33 years.
Being a caregiver is a call for me. I have worked 17 years in hospitals and 16 years doing home care. (I like the home care better because I can give all my attention to my client).
My job is very rewarding to me. I know I can make a difference in the lives of my clients – some times my love and care is the only thing they have. In all my years of work, I have very good memories. But, being a Direct Care Worker is a job full of beginnings and endings. We meet new clients and we lose clients. Then, we start again with other clients. Each ending becomes a new beginning. And each time, it feels like a part of me goes with him or her. I have to thank my work in health care because it made me a much better warm and loving person. The strength that I have comes from my work.
As we begin this blog, I would like to share a wonderful ending memory that I have. My client was a wonderful, loving, still-young man that was terminal with lung cancer he got while working in a submarine with the Navy. We were introduced and his smile was contagious. His wife had been blinded by her diabetes several years earlier. She was cold and mean, but he never spoke to her without calling her, “dear.” Towards the end, I would say to myself, “Please God. Don’t let him die on my shift.”
One Saturday morning as I was leaving, I went to tell him that I would see him that night. He asked me to get near him and he gave me a kiss. He said, “God made you special. Remember, I will always be looking for you. I will be your guardian angel. Just look in the sky and I will be looking down on you.” I guess he knew he was close to dying. I couldn’t hold back my tears because I knew it too. I knew he was leaving me.
As I drove home, right after I left, he passed away. I got the phone call when I walked in the door. A week later, I received a nice letter with this poem:
God Bless the Caregiver
A caregiver’s life is marked by devotion
Her time is rarely her own.
Her days are a mix of every emotion,
And sometimes she feels so alone.
Her manner is gentle and ever-forgiving,
She knows all the right things to say.
Her presence inspires a “purpose for living,”
She has such a nurturing way.
A caregiver’s heart is full of compassion,
And it comes across in her deeds.
She demonstrates love and knows how to “fashion”
Sweet moments that everyone needs.
And if there’s a place where “good” is rewarded,
Where kindness and patience have worth,
You can be sure – the Lord has recorded,
All the joy that she’s spread on this earth!
I framed the poem and I look at it every day. I know he is watching over me and protecting me. My life is to be a caregiver and I’m so proud of it. I hope that you are proud too, because what you do is so important and valuable for the community. May this blog be the beginning of many wonderful things.
3 comments:
Wow, Danielle. Thanks for sharing your story.
Always touching stories when you deal with people who can't fend for themselves, whatever their conditions.
A very nice memory, Cheers!
Danielle - To you and the many others who care for our loved ones, thank you for being part of an important and growing profession!
Post a Comment