There are not many people who you meet who make you feel like you are the most important person in the room (and many times the world). Kathe Posin truly does that. After being with her, you are simply "better".
Tune in to hear her story of being a life long caregiver, planning care for her loved ones from afar and what brought her to us.
No denying you will feel refreshed after listening!
To learn more about Home Instead Senior Care visit:
www.HomeInsteadSWFL.com
Call: 239-241-9765
There are not many people who you meet who make you feel like you are the most important person in the room (and many times the world). Kathe Posin truly does that. After being with her, you are simply "better".
Tune in to hear her story of being a life long caregiver, planning care for her loved ones from afar and what brought her to us.
No denying you will feel refreshed after listening!
To learn more about Home Instead Senior Care visit:
www.HomeInsteadSWFL.com
Call: 239-241-9765
Speaker 1:
Hello, and welcome to the Home Care Pod, your local resource when considering care. Now, introducing the Home Care ladies, Laura Gillian and Audra Bidwell at your service.
Laura Gillian:
Hello to all of you out there and welcome back to the Home Care Pod. We are so thrilled that you're popping on today, because we're about to introduce you to the greatest woman. We know we are your Home Care ladies, I'm Laura.
Audra Bidwell:
And this is Audra. Welcome all. You are in for such a treat today.
Laura Gillian:
Such a treat.
Audra Bidwell:
We have the lovely and talented Kathy Posen with us. We call her our Home Instead liaison. She's amazing.
Laura Gillian:
She really is amazing. And we call her a liaison because that's truly who she is. She helps connect people with us in a variety of ways. So Kathy, thank you so much for joining us on the Pod. I would love before we get started into what brought you to Home Instead, if you would share a bit of your story with us, is that something you feel comfortable doing?
Kathy Posen:
I would love to, although I must say it is kind of a roller coaster. So in 2002, my 15 year old son, Rick, was diagnosed with Primary sclerosing cholangitis, a really, really rare liver disease, but unfortunately, Primary sclerosing cholangitis is also a fatal disease and the only cure is a liver transplant. And that was the beginning of a roller coaster ride. At first, it was just like, you're heading to that first hill on a roller coaster.
Kathy Posen:
You're really scared, but you're really not sure what's going to happen next. So you're pretty much just kind of holding your breath. So Rick decided since he could no longer go to school, he would learn to juggle. And Rick went and juggled at the hospital for the children in the Cancer Ward and Rick was great. He could pick up anything and include it into his juggling routine, but he always has the same tagline. He would say sometimes God gives us more than we can handle that's okay. Because when he does, that's when he teaches us how to juggle and he would start grabbing things, people's hats, whatever, and he would juggle it all. And he also loved to juggle at Angels' Place. Angels' Place is an organization for children who are diagnosed with a fatal disease and they meet outside in a park and Rick would go there to all their meetings and he would juggle for them and he would start out with his general. "Sometimes God gives us more than we can handle that is okay, because that's what he's going to teach us how to juggle". And he would pull things, a leaf or a bar, whatever he could get his hands on, he would juggle it and then he would stop and put all those items back down. And he would say, "and sometimes like you and like me, God gives us way more than we can handle. He gives us a fatal disease". He said, then "that's okay, because that's when God will teach you how to juggle flaming torches". And Rick would, he had torches that were actually liquid real fire and he would juggle them. And it was just amazing. Absolutely amazing. So we had a wonderful two years waiting for this liver transplant. And finally, the call came in 2004. Rick did get a liver transplant and it was like that first ride on the roller coaster.
Kathy Posen:
It's kind of a big hill, but it is kind of exciting and fun too. So that was terrific. The only problem is the ride isn't over after the first hill, just six months later after the transplant Rick had serious complications and he died. That was like the horribly scary part of that top of the roller coaster. When you wish you had never gone on that ride at all. Now, there was only a very small stretch of the track left on that ride and that was Rick's funeral. I sat down in the front and all of a sudden I looked behind me and I saw all these people I had never known or met before they were all the adults and all the children from all the places Rick had juggled. They had all come to thank Rick. One little girl stood up and it was quite clear.
Kathy Posen:
She was scarred from all the attempts she had used to take her own life. And she said, "Rick trusted his God all the way to the end. I'm going to trust that God too". And it was just the most beautiful end to a roller coaster ride you could imagine, except it wasn't quite over. So Rick died in 2004, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit and the levees broke. Our house was completely destroyed. So we had to evacuate. And while we were evacuated, my husband, Dan who's diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. So what actually happened on this rollercoaster ride was 2004, Rick died, 2005, hurricane Katrina, 2006, Dan died, when 2007 arrived, I was almost ready for anything to happen, but I was praying for no more roller coaster rides, but you'll see if it all ends up with leading me to an amazing ride right here at Home Instead,
Laura Gillian:
Kath gosh, so amazing. I have to gather myself for a minute. It's such an amazing story of strength and I'm just amazed by you every day. And I really appreciate you sharing that with our listeners. I think it really will help them understand why you're so great. I mean, it's something that we already knew obviously, but I'm so happy that we got to share that with, with our listeners. I'm
Kathy Posen:
Just thankful for that little girl that came forward and stood up and gave that testimony. It was just, it was amazing. It was absolutely.
Laura Gillian:
And every time I hear your story, I'm just reminded of your amazingness because it would have been easy to just kind of shut down and shut the doors and be like, I'm done. And I mean, basically you been at caregiver your whole life.
Kathy Posen:
Absolutely yeah.
Laura Gillian:
I don't know if you, if you mentioned it, but that was in Louisiana was where you were living at that point.
Kathy Posen:
Yes.
Laura Gillian:
So will you just kind of share with the listeners how you came to us and kind of all of that?
Kathy Posen:
Oh, I would definitely love to see that. Well, actually coming to work at Home Instead is the second part of that roller coaster ride, believe it or not. So my incredible parents were age 97 and 98.
Kathy Posen:
And what a gift to have both parents at that age. I loved it. The hard part though, as you said, Laura, I was living in New Orleans and they were living in Charlotte County. So every weekend I would get up at 5:00 AM on Friday race to Charlotte County and then 5:00 AM Monday morning race back to New Orleans. So as soon as I could, I moved to Florida. So on my first week here in Florida, my new friend far from church suggested that I go to Curves and Exercise with her. So Barb seriously exercise at Curves. I mostly talk and sometimes exercise, but one day while I was talking and Barb was seriously exercising, Barb asked me about my son and my husband died just a year apart. And just as it happened, there was a Home Instead employee also exercising and she stopped exercising and pulled me aside.
Kathy Posen:
And she said, no, we have some lady clients that have lost a husband and a child. Do you think you'd be willing to be a caregiver and help take care of them? Well, roller coaster ride Part Two. Absolutely. But without the high exciting parts, I became a Home Instead caregiver. My first three clients, this is absolutely true were all ladies that had lost both a son, not even a daughter, a son, and a husband within a year. It's, that's amazing. All that, all of that first scary roller coaster ride gave me exactly what I needed to be a great caregiver for these three ladies. It was yet another perfect end to a roller coaster ride. And it still is. I love being here.
Audra Bidwell:
Well, we're very happy to have you. And we're so happy and thankful for your parents because that is the reason that brought you to Florida and brought you to us.
Kathy Posen:
Thank you.
Audra Bidwell:
It must've been really incredibly tough to be that far away from your mom and dad and being basically in charge of their care. Tell me a little bit when you're still in Louisiana, tell me a little bit about how you helped plan their care from so far.
Kathy Posen:
I'm so glad that you asked Audra because remember those 5:00 AM trips leaving New Orleans at 5:00 AM and driving straight through as fast as I could to Charlotte County. Well, the weekends with mom and dad were great, but then I had to leave Monday morning. I would drive maybe three miles at most until the questions started coming to my mind. Are they okay? Right now? Are they going to drink the Boost without me there to give it to them, or are they going back to that Diet Coke they were drinking?, And my mom, my sweet mom had Alzheimer's and one of her fun tricks was to hide their medications and I wasn't there to find them for them. So I probably had two miles of peace heading back home, and then a question hour for the next 12 hours. Now I did have family relatives here and I did have a great church family, but there were always gaps. Mostly what I had was uncertainty and I would get home and call my parents just to reassure myself that they were okay. And mom, the one who had Alzheimer's would always answer the phone. "No, dear. I don't know where your father is. I think he's driving to Tampa right now". My dad was legally blind and hadn't driven in over ten years. "Oh wait, maybe he's in the bathroom. Fred is that you in the bathroom?". This is a true story. I could barely wait till Friday. Some Fridays I'd be up at 2:00 AM driving because I couldn't wait to get back. So when families call, I know that pain of being three miles away from your loved one and wondering are they okay? And I love being the one I get to say the six best words anyone could ever say to me is 'we'll be there when you're not'. That's the best part of my job right there. Because I've been there.
Audra Bidwell:
Yeah, absolutely and we didn't really get into the next part of your rollercoaster, but we decided to snatch you up and have you come work in the office and so you get to do that for our families now. So a major part of your job is answering the phone calls from adult daughters that are worrying or feeling overwhelmed or all of that.
Audra Bidwell:
So tell us about that role and what you love about it and how you relate to those people. You kind of mentioned some of that, but anything you'd want to tell us.
Kathy Posen:
I've got way more to tell you. I actually love answering the phones at Home Instead every single time that phone rings, I think "I can help another Kathy", just like I'm Kathy, who's out there and worrying about their loved ones, like their parents or whatever relative it might be. And my favorite part is that, unlike me for those 12 hours wondering what's happening, I can actually offer comfort and peace to these callers about their loved ones. I love hearing them relax. Knowing not only that we can be there with them, but we're going to make their loved ones life much better and happier and easier. And unlike my phone calls to check on the family, we can prove it.
Kathy Posen:
We have the Home Instead family where they can see a picture of the caregiver and they can learn what their loved one did that day. So there's no more, "you know, darling, I think your father's on a business trip in Russia right now". My sweet mother, she was very creative in Alzheimer's and no more too short conversations. Those so what's new dad, nothing much, same as usual. "Not much new around here, but hey, it was great, glad you called". No, no. Now it's dad, Carol made homemade cookies for you and you two walked the whole block together today. Dad, you're amazing. It's not just a phone call. It's a real connection now. And the smile I see on the adult children's face and they learn about the Home Instead family room is actually one of my favorite parts of the job. I wish I had a family room for my folks.
Audra Bidwell:
Absolutely. An awesome thing we get to have for them.
Laura Gillian:
It really is. Kath, we're so lucky to have you. I've heard you take those calls before and I just know when those callers hang up, they really feel heard. They feel understood. Thank you so much for being that person for women, just like you all over the place. It's really special. And I know that it means a whole lot to the women that call in because we get emails afterwards, just raving about well, how comfortable they feel and how at ease they feel and peaceful about this decision. And that's a testament to what you do every day.
Kathy Posen:
Oh, that's great. Thank you so much. That means so much to me. It really does.
Audra Bidwell:
I go out to consults after Kathy has talked to people on the phone one, they're disappointed that I'm not Kathy, which hey, me too. But I like to tell people that Kathy is a Disney Princess. And so it's legitimate. It's 100% who you are. So I appreciate that. So, Kath, what would you just say to someone who was maybe listening and looking to set up care from afar for a loved one?
Kathy Posen:
Oh, that's so easy for me to answer. I would say this is going to be like calling home, call Home Instead. We're right there to help you each step of the way 24 hours a day, seven days a week and those aren't just words. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Not by a machine, but by someone who actually cares.
Kathy Posen:
I remember one night a client's son called me and was close to 2:00 AM and he said, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I've been trying to call mom all day, all evening and she's not answering the phone. He said, I've got an important business meeting tomorrow. Could you possibly, I know there's a caregiver where there overnight, could you get ahold of your caregiver? And just let me know if she's okay. Maybe something happened to both her and the caregiver. And I said, I would be delighted. So I called the caregiver and of course she found the phone under about five pillows under the mom's bed. And they called the son and he called me back and he said, thank you so much. That meant so much to me. Now I can sleep. And I said, no, no, no. It meant so much to me what a privilege it is to be able to help you. And I said, and do well on that meeting tomorrow, but I meant it. What a joy to be able to relieve someone's grave anxiety.
Audra Bidwell:
Yeah. You're amazing Kath. Thank you.
Kathy Posen:
And I love hearing the relief in the caller's voice, knowing that unlike me, they can drive all the way home from Florida to wherever in the north they're going, without stress.
Audra Bidwell:
Awesome. It's an awesome feeling. And it's such a gift that we get to give to those families too. Such a gift. Kath, we appreciate you so much. Anything else that you want to add before we sign off today?
Kathy Posen:
Yes. I love what we do. I love working for this company. I often say to people I would work for this company for free and they can tell it's truly from my heart. And actually now it truly is from my heart. I just said that in front of my two bosses. Whoops. Thank you so much I love this.
Laura Gillian:
We're not going to hold you to that.
Audra Bidwell:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Kathy, for sharing your personal story and for sharing your Home Instead story, and I know anybody who's listening, who's ever spoken with you on the phone can relate to every little bit of that because you just bring peace and comfort and meet them where they're at. So I appreciate it. So if you're looking for help for a loved one and feel like the task is too great, maybe you're out of town and you're just thinking, I just don't know what to do. Give us a call and maybe you'll talk to Kathy and maybe you'll talk to me, but either way, we're going to help you every step of the way. So until next time, stay healthy and make today great. Bye everyone.
Laura Gillian:
Bye.
Speaker 1:
Thanks again for listening to the home care pod with Laura and Audra your Home Care ladies, to learn more about home care or a career as a caregiver, please visit our website at www.homeinsteadswfl.com or call us at (239) 226-0007.