When my 84-year-old mother got out of the hospital after having pneumonia, she was extremely weak and bed-ridden. My adult brother and sisters hoped that we could take care of her on our own until she recovered. We soon realized that although one of us could be with her most of the time, we needed some help, not really medical help because she had visiting nurses and a visiting physician. We need a caring person who could help her get to the bedside commode, keep her hydrated and just try to make her feel better. Our wonderful sister-in-law took it upon herself to try to find caregivers that would care for our mother like us. She scoured the yellow pages and called Granny Nannies. After speaking to the owner, Heidi, she was so impressed that we set up a meeting with an aide for the very next day. We all met Paula, a retired RN, and liked her immediately. She started the next day, sitting by our mother's bedside, helping to make her more comfortable and coaxing her to eat and drink.
Then, several days later, we needed help overnight because our mother was very restless and needed someone to be right there with her during the night. Although some of us were coming in from out of town and my siblings who lived there were often spending the night, we were simply not equipped to provide care during the night and then try to work during the day. So, Angelina came to be with our mother so we could sleep.
After several weeks, we moved my mother to my sister's house nearby so my sister was there during the night if my mother needed her, although the aide was right there with her. My mother was slowly getting weaker and needed constant attention because she was unable to do anything for herself. Finally, we needed a third aide to be there from 3pm until 10pm to have coverage the full 24-hours a day. So, we called Heidi again and\, like before, she sent another lovely young lady to meet us. Sara began the next day and we were her first clients with Granny Nannies. She was so wonderful with our mother, sat with her and watched the old movies that our mother loved (but couldn't really see or hear too well), helped do everything she could to try to make her more comfortable. She looked up smoothie recipes online to try to come up with something "not sweet" that my mother would drink. The night before our mother died, Sara was talking to us about some candles and room sprays that might help our mother's anxiety or help her sleep better. After hearing her ideas, I immediately got online and ordered some vanilla and lavender pillow sprays that promote sleep.
My mother died the next day and her Memorial Mass was a week later. Both Heidi and Sara came to the Mass to pay their respects.
I and my entire family can wholeheartedly recommend Granny Nannies if you need help caring for loved ones. When I met Heidi after Mass, she said that she has an elderly mother and she would not hire anyone that she wouldn't have care for her own mother. It was very difficult for us to even consider bringing in outsiders to care for our mother and we knew she would hate having strangers in her house. But after meeting Paula, Angelina and Sara and seeing how they interacted with our mother, we thanked God that we had found them. And our mother was, too, because, weak as she was, she would take their hand and lay it against her cheek and say "thank you." read more
