Laura, What's your Why?

Audra flips the script and Laura is on the "hot seat" explaining what brought her from teaching in NY to a 15 year career in Home Care here at Home Instead.


www.HomeInsteadSWFL.com
Call: 239-241-9765

Transcript

 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.

Audra:
Hello and welcome back to The Home Care Pod. We are your Home Care ladies! I'm Audra.

Speaker 1:
I'm Laura!

Audra:
So today is going to be a really fun pod because I'm going to flip the script just a bit. Laura is always the one who's asking the good questions, and I'm usually the one that's giving the answers, but not today, folks. Today, I'm really excited because this episode is featuring our very own Laura. She's such a wealth of knowledge, and she has a wonderful heart for seniors. She's the glue that holds so much together here. And she's also one of my dearest and most cherished friends. Laura, are you ready to sit in the hot seat for a bit?

Laura:
Well, you know that I love to talk, so let's get to it. Ask me anything. What do you want to know?

Audra:
Yay. So Laura has been with us for over 15 years, but she hasn't been in the home care industry. I always find it completely fascinating to hear how people land in the careers that they do. So, Laura, can you share just a bit about your professional background?

Laura:
Well, absolutely. So after graduating college in western New York, I took a teaching job in Long Island. It was really great because I was able to work and live with my college roommate and very best friend, but Long Island just was not for me. I had grown up in a suburb in Syracuse, and the Long Island traffic... And it just didn't feel right. It just felt different. At that point in life, my brother was living in Orlando, and my parents and my younger brother were planning to move to Florida. I never thought I would live in Florida, but I wanted to be by family.

Laura:
So I started applying all across New York and in Florida for teaching jobs. If you were looking for a teaching job today, you probably could get hired right on the spot. But the job market then was a lot different, and I was concerned that I might not find a teaching position that felt like a fit for me.

Laura:
But after visiting a friend who lived in Florida, I had applied at First Baptist Academy in Naples. We had visited church there when I was in town and I saw in their bulletin that they were looking to hire a couple of teachers for the following year. I kept that in the back of my mind and when I got home to Long Island, I sent my resume and they called the same day and hired me on the spot. And although I probably sent out a hundred resumes and... All over New York and all over Florida, but this was the only place that I ever heard back from, so it was definitely meant to be.

Laura:
So I [inaudible 00:02:48] in July of 2003, and started teaching August 1st and that first week of teaching, I made my first Florida friend. Her name was Abby Datillo, and as it turns out, her parents are Bill and Sue Bidwell. So for those of you who don't know, Bill and Sue Bidwell are Audra's in-laws and the owners of our franchise. Now, I could go on and on about all the connections that we had, and I could talk about that for days. But I decided to leave teaching in 2006 and made the jump over to help seniors, from fourth graders, and came on as the office manager for the Naples office of Home Instead.

Laura:
If you would have told me, even in 2005, that I'd be working with seniors, I probably would have laughed at you. While I had an amazing relationship with my grandparents, I had a terrible experience at an old-school nursing home as a child. And that trauma kept me far from anything having to do with seniors or assisted living... Any assisted living facility. Honestly, I have to say that God works in mysterious ways, because my heart for seniors and home care was softened. And now 15 years later, I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Audra:
It's such a journey, I love it! Thanks, Laura. Yes. You certainly do have a heart for helping others, whether it be teaching or, with my kids or with seniors. But 15 years is a long time to be doing something that you never really set out to do. So what keeps you here at Home Instead? Why do you do what you do?

Laura:
Well honestly, it's the seniors. As you know from a previous episode, I shared that my grandmother came to live with us for the final year of her life. It was the most precious time for our family, but even before that we were extremely close. So go back to 1980, and my mom had me in November, and she was a teacher and she went back to school in January the following year, right after Christmas break. So I spent every day, from being a month and a half old until I went to Kindergarten, with my grandparents. They were old-school Italians, both here from Italy, who just loved each other fiercely and loved us, but they were very firm and very strict. But they raised my brothers and my cousins and me just the right way.

Laura:
So unfortunately, when I was in fifth grade, three of my grandparents passed away, and I felt like I missed out on a lot from not having grandparents around. So getting to meet with the seniors that we get to help and talk through how to keep them home is just such a joy for me. It's never, ever felt like a job. It feels like family. So who would I want to care for them? The same people I'd want to care for Josephine and Emilio [inaudible 00:05:46], my grandparents. So they would just have to be the best of the best.

Audra:
I know that I wouldn't want to do this job in this business with anybody else. And I know that sentiment resonates really with the rest of our office as well. So when you think back, tapping into the knowledge that 2021 Laura has, what is the one thing that you learned that you would tell 2006 Laura?

Laura:
Well, it's funny to think back, because it feels like yesterday, but it also feels like a million years ago. But honestly Audra, it's something that your husband told me about his dad. I remember just before coming on to take the role, I felt very pushed out of my comfort zone. I was nervous and fearful, and I said to Joe, "Your dad just asked me to lead a church service at a local assisted living facility, and I am terrified. It is 100% out of my comfort zone."

Laura:
And Joe's response stuck with me and it just pushed me every day since. He said, "Oh, my dad doesn't understand the concept of comfort zones." And if you know Bill Bidwell, you know this to be true. He believes the best in everyone, he thinks you can do anything, and he just was convinced that I could do it. So while it didn't help at that time, I was still terrified and very nervous, I did it. I led that church service. But now I do try to push myself out of my boundaries. So I would tell 26-year-old Laura to just go for it, you don't need to worry.

Audra:
That's awesome. And it's so accurate that my father-in-law does believe that there is no such thing as a comfort zone, and it's right. Yes. It's very true. Well, thank you so much, Laura. I hope that hot seat wasn't too bad.

Laura:
Oh, it was terrible. It was so terrible. No, I'm just kidding. It was actually great to share a little bit more about me and what brought me to Home Instead and Florida, and all of that. So I just want to encourage you all today to just go for it. You don't need to worry.

Audra:
Yeah, I like that. And I like showcasing you for a little bit. That was really fun.

Audra:
So if you're listening today and you're looking for your care for yourself, or a loved one, or you're even looking for what we call meaningful work, because it truly is what we do. It's meaningful in every way. You want to help seniors in their homes, please don't hesitate to give us a call. You can reach us at (239) 596-2050. We'll see you next time, 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.