Humble gratitude What Caregiving Taught Me as a Homecare Owner

Being both a caregiver and the owner of a homecare agency has taught me many things—but above all, it has taught me humility.

I have always been a private person. That disappeared the moment caregiving entered my life in full force. When someone you love depends on care, privacy becomes a luxury you no longer control. You cannot do this alone. You must depend on others—often people who are not friends or family, but strangers—entering your most sacred space to help you care for someone you love deeply.

That is not easy.

Opening the door to caregivers brought anxiety I didn’t expect. Every time the door opened, I prayed: Please let them be kind. Please let them be capable. Please let them care. Sometimes that prayer was answered. Sometimes it wasn’t.

Some caregivers stayed on their phones for most of the shift. Others needed the same instructions repeated every single visit. Some arrived late—on the very moments I needed to leave for work or an important meeting. And then there were the no-shows. The calls that never came. The shifts abandoned at the last minute, leaving us scrambling, exhausted, and afraid of what the day would hold.

For many years, we leaned heavily on my mother—herself a senior citizen—to be the primary caregiver while I worked. When I came home, I took over. That was our rhythm. It worked, but it came at a cost. It required endurance, sacrifice, and an unspoken agreement that we would keep going, no matter how tired we were.

It was in those gaps—those moments of unreliability, stress, and unmet need—that my business was born.

I did not start my homecare agency to become a mogul. I didn’t set out to build an empire. I started it because I saw the cracks in the system firsthand. I felt the weight of inadequate care, inconsistent staffing, and the emotional toll it placed on families. Most of all, I started it to give my mother the relief she so desperately needed—relief I wished someone had given us sooner.

Because of this lived reality, I have a very different relationship with my employees.

It goes beyond appreciation.

They have seen my humanity. They’ve answered the door when I was still in my pajamas. They’ve seen me sitting at the kitchen table, weary but present. They’ve shared a cup of coffee with us after preparing my brother’s breakfast. They have become part of our daily rhythm—not just workers clocking in and out, but people sharing space, life, and responsibility.

They are my extended family.

Yes, they are paid—but they are family nonetheless.

I am deeply grateful for each one of them and for the blessing they have been to my family and to my business. They carry their own struggles, their own worries, their own quiet battles. Sometimes their smiles hide tears we never see. Yet they show up. They care. They give their best because they understand something profound:

We are all in this struggle together.

Caregiving is not transactional. It is relational. It requires trust, grace, patience, and humility on both sides of the door. And every day, as I open it, I am reminded that while I may be the owner of a homecare agency, I am also simply a daughter, a sister, and a human being—still learning how to receive help with gratitude and grace.

https://myseniorcareathome.com

https://nurselynx.com

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