Mare Martell, Grand Rapids, MI, has been doing paid DCW work for 3 years and says it makes her “blissfully happy” to be able to serve others. “I would do it for free, however, free does not pay bills.” She loves animals, has a menagerie of pets including a house chicken, and is an artist […]
Sarah Bigby, Holland, MI, Medical Assistant. Has been a DCW for 9 years. She gave it a try because it is in the medical field and offered flexible hours that allowed her to care for her young child. She stuck with it because, “It still gives me the flexibility to maintain my life and take […]
Jeremy Klimas and Elizabeth Peterson, Grayling, MI, live in a full house, blending families and three generations to make ends meet because one income as a DCW is not enough. Raised in Detroit, Jeremy joined the Air Force, did three tours of duty, one in Afghanistan, two in Iraq. He then moved north to help […]
Betty Keller, Kalkaska, MI, is a certified nursing assistant who has been a DCW for 28 years. She talks about the skills needed to be a DCW: technical skills, patience, being able to communicate with all kinds of different people and levels of mental or physical states, recognizing when a person is in trouble medically, […]
Wendy Martin, Traverse City, MI, Certified Phlebotomist, co-owns Crystal Penny Inc. Home Healthcare Company with her mother who is an RN. She worked as a quality automotive engineer for years. Then the recession hit, she was laid off and not sure what to do next. Her mother proposed moving north to help her with the […]
Therese Mukarushema, Lansing, MI emigrated c. 2004 from Rwanda where she was a nurse. Now a U.S. citizen, she at first had difficulty finding work and faced racism, discrimination, and ignorance. “Some people treat you like you are from the junk in Africa. They ask you, ‘Did you live with animals?’” Then she found home […]
Jennifer Lugo, Kent City, MI, is a Certified Nursing Assistant who is both a paid DCW and a family caregiver. She started caregiving as a teenager, with her maternal grandmother, who had cancer. She also watched her aunt take care of her grandfather with dementia in his home around that time. In 2007, she began […]
Eva Sharpe, Lansing, MI is a family caregiver, raised among an extended family of primarily Mexican descent that modeled caregiving for elders. She started helping her grandmother when she was age 12 and now cares for her uncle who has mild dementia. The family respite it provides makes home care possible. Family caregivers differ from […]
Richard Dusenbury, Ferndale, MI has been a DCW since age 20 when he took care of his grandmother. He is a certified nursing assistant, medical assistant, photography buff, speaks fluent French, and does mission work in Ghana with his church. He’s a DCW because he likes people, it reflects his Christian values, it allows him […]
Manila Freeman, Detroit, MI, retired from the Detroit school system as a GED specialist. Like many DCWs, she started as a family caregiver, caring for her brother, a disabled Veteran with multiple needs. After he moved in, she learned that “an agency” had signed him up for assistance and made her the paid homecare worker. […]
