Shelia Wedell, Escanaba, MI bubbles with life. She raises doves, is active in church with bible study and teaching Sunday school, has taken up gardening, and loves time with her grandkids. She is a self-described people person, confident, entrepreneurial, and boisterous. She got into DCW work at age 10 when she started a “pooper scooper” business, cleaning up people’s yards to raise money for 45 records. Some of her older clients started asking her for help with home care and she’s been doing it on and off ever since. She soaks up her client’s life stories. She also relayed unjust accusations of theft, sexually inappropriate advances, and devastating grief when a client dies. She wants DCWs to get training, credentials and respect.
Shelia has a rich appreciation for ingenuity. “It totally turns me on when people MacGyver stuff and it works. Whoever invented that squeezey stick with the grabber on the end, wow! What an amazing thing to not have to stare at things that fell on the floor all day long until someone comes.” She applied her own creative problem-solving skills to help a client trapped by a snow storm. She walked a mile to get to her, made meals to last several days, set up drinking water, and rigged up a system that she calls “piggy backing depends” so that her client could stay dry and not have skin breakdown. She said she tried to be brave for her and tell her, “If that snow comes and you’re stuck on your own…you’re rough and tough…you’re gonna be able to do this…because we’re women and we’re strong.” The woman received more help in time to divert a tragedy and, thanks to Shelia, survived.
