When the glorious day came when my wife was due to come home after being in hospital for just over nine and a half weeks, we were told that a care package would be put in place and we would have carers visiting our house four times a day. My heart sank, my last experience of home carers was around fifteen years ago when my mother-in-law had a care package in place and it wasn’t a happy experience, so my expectations were about as low as they could be.
I can remember having to call the care provider based in Bradford from our home in Norwich on Christmas day, because my mother-in-law was still sitting in her nightie at 1pm in the afternoon because nobody had turned up to help her get dressed, she had bought an outfit for the day and a Christmas Dinner and I had to lay it on thick with the manager of the care company who sent her own daughter out at almost 3pm and even after all these years thos sort of experiences shaped my view of what was to come.
Almost three months on, my attitude has changed considerably. Over the weeks we have made friends with a very special band of women who visit our home at four points between 8am and 10pm seven days a week. I don’t envy them their job, some travel by car, others on pushbikes or on foot, they work incredibly long hours, they nearly all have families and by and large are some of the most cheerful, patient, helpful and kind people you could ever want to meet.
It is chiefly down to this band of young women that Karen is making the progress that she is, the status of this kind of work commands the lowest levels of pay in any industry and the days of covid are still recent enough for us to remember that these people were having to work wearing bin liners and home made face masks because PPE wasn’t available. We will have the same carer arrive at our house at around 9am to get Karen up and dressed and the same person will be there at 9pm to help her into bed twelve hours later, by which time they are on their knees. I ought to add that this role is not filled only by women, but there are men as well, but because of our home circumastances we only have female carers.
During the pandemic, many of us took to our doorsteps on a Thursday evening and applauded the NHS workers and today I want to applaude the work that people do in our caring profession. We know from conversations with the little band of new friends we have made and with conversations with the management of our local care provider, that the company is very short staffed and things can change at the last minute.
With the wonder of modern technology we have an App on our phones and even today looking at the next seven days we have ten appointments marked “not yet filled” yet I know that on cue, four times a day, somebody will turn up. I often think about the presence of angels in Bible stories, they a mystical creatures and yet day by day we welcome angels into our home and it is time to appreciate the wonderful work they do.
This is my attempt to thank God for carers whatever form they take.