Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast

Christmas Fishbowl (Special Episode)

• Helperly, Caleb Richardson • Season 5 • Episode 3

Share episode

Send us a text

We pull holiday questions from a bowl to reflect on care, family rituals, and what truly matters at the end of a long year. From a Grinch suit to a weekly visit that may have saved a life, we land on one simple ask for Christmas morning.

• playful traditions that spark connection  
• why small, steady acts keep seniors thriving  
• the ache for family togetherness and how to bridge it  
• foods that carry comfort and memory  
• a year summed up as learning in service  
• gratitude for teams who carry the mission  
• lessons from older adults on what lasts  
• a simple ritual to include elders in the magic

FaceTime an elderly loved one of yours on Christmas morning and just let them be a part of it

Support the show

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to Senior Care Academy. Today we're going to do an episode special for Christmas, and the podcast manager decided that what we should do is fill a bowl with a bunch of questions, and I will pick a few out randomly and answer them on a reflection for this year. Some of the questions are about Christmas, some of the questions are about seniors, some are about helperly. So here we go. The first question: if you could dress up as any Christmas character for a day at work, who would it be? That one's pretty easy. I think it'd be the Grinch. Um, the Jim Carrey Grinch. It's just so fun. So many different mannerisms and like funny things that you could do. And the Grinch is my wife's favorite, one of my wife's favorite Christmas movies. So she would enjoy if I dressed up, I'm sure. Next, what's a funny or unexpected holiday tradition in your family? Funny or unexpected? Um holiday, I'll loop in Thanksgiving. An unexpected holiday tradition for Thanksgiving is my mom makes a ridiculous amount of pies. Um anywhere from 30 pies to like 110 pies. And so we usually have more pies than we have people, or about the same number of pies as we have people at Thanksgiving dinner. So that's always gets a good little reaction out of people, and I think that's why my mom does it, because nobody's asking for it. She just keeps making this many pies, and we love it. I've got pies for weeks after Thanksgiving, um, but it's a lot of fun, and it's very unexpected when I say, Yeah, I'll bring some pies, and they're delicious. She's a very good baker, all the things. It's just a ton, ton of pies. Um next, name a small act of care that made a big difference this year. Um, there's one client that we have, he's been around for a handful of years now. Um, and somebody on the help release staff visits him once a week, and he kind of he has himself and then he has a little puppy named Brindley, and I think it's a lot of small acts of kindness. He really doesn't have any other support systems. He's been um in and out of skilled nursing all year long. He's probably been in at least three or four different times to a uh skilled nursing facility, and I think that the like him and his caregiver have become really good friends, almost like a uh father-son or father or grandfather-grandson dynamic. And I personally believe, just like with statistics and all the things, that it's like the only reason that he's still around and surviving. Like most of the time, going to a sniff once sets you up for like a really quick deterioration. But he's been there multiple times and he's still kicking and he's still um there every single Tuesday. So I think that small acts of care can make a big difference um for anyone as long as they're stacked on top of each other. So there's that one. Um, the next is if you could magically grant a holiday wish for any senior or caregiver, what would it be? A holiday wish, one that I hear a lot that's actually really sad, and I'm thinking about that same guy, would be getting all their family in one place for Christmas, whether it's like a dinner or gift exchange or something. I think it's the bigger and bigger as years go on, people keep having kids and the family keeps growing and it gets more complex with schedules. And like, for example, my my grandma and grandpa, I've got like 70 plus cousins, and a lot of us are married with kids of our own, so we have in-laws of our own. Um, and it's just really, really tough to get everybody in one place. So if I could just magically wave a wand and make a wish happen, it would be to get all of their posterity in one place. Next one. What is your favorite holiday food or drink to enjoy while working? Celsius. Just kidding. Um, I have a caffeine problem. Um holiday food or drink that I enjoy while working. I'm not a big drink guy, but a holiday food that I really enjoy. My wife makes really good cranberry salad or whatever, and so that's fun. I actually didn't like cranberries before she made hers, so I do enjoy that a lot. Um biscuits and gravy are something that we have each Christmas, so that's kind of associated with holidays at this point. And then um, I do dabble in a little bit of eggnog this time of year, but I'm not huge, so Celsius is my answer. Just kidding. If you could wrap up your year at Helperly in one word, what would it be? I would say learning. 2025 has been full of a lot of different lessons and um easy, some hard, some welcome, some not, at Helperly, as we've continued to learn and grow and um develop to try to help more seniors. I've had a lot of lessons this year, so 2025 was a year of learning. Next question: What's your favorite holiday memory with someone you care for? Um, not sure if this question means like currently care for or just like somebody that I care about. But um, there's a really good holiday memory. I would have been 11, I think. It was the my older brother served a mission, LDS mission. He got back from his mission. And another tradition that we have as a family is all 10 of our sip, all 10 siblings uh sleep in one bedroom, and we have like a huge slumber party the day before or on Christmas Eve. Um, and then we all come out at the same time. And that is a very memorable one. Um, it was his first one back, and then we all slept over in it, it was like a small room. We had basically just the floor was mats. Um, of course, we were up at like three in the morning asking for mom and dad to come get us, and then all my sisters were like doing their hair, and then my brothers and I were like rough housing. It was a very good memory. Um, I don't know why that one specifically stands out because we did that every year, but that one's very strong memory. Um, if you could create a new holiday tradition for seniors, what would it be? Uh new holiday tradition specifically for seniors. I think something along the lines that connects them to their peers. So making it some sort of tradition, whether it's old friends or new friends, or um holo or you know, high school friends or something, a tradition where you know, after you turn 65 or something, um, every single Christmas Eve you get on a video call or you do something with people that are in that same demographic. I think that would be a super awesome holiday tradition that can not fill the gap, but um help some with the fact that it is really hard to have your entire family over every single Christmas. So that would be a really cool trend. Not trend, tradition. Next question is share a moment. I keep on saying question. This isn't a question, it's a statement. Share a moment this year that made you feel especially grateful. Um I'll share one work and one family. So one work moment that made me feel especially grateful. Um earlier this year, hired a director of operations for the services side of our business. And um a few weeks ago, I went into his office. They were having um a team meeting, and they were just talking about all the different like things that they had done and systems that they had set up. And it was a really cool experience for me to walk in and see people care so much about uh the demographic that we serve, this business that we've built, um, and things moving forward without me being needing to be involved was super cool. So that's a professional one. Um, a moment this year that made me feel especially grateful. It's more of a recurring moment. Uh, I've got two little boys, um, and even like yesterday, driving them to the babysitter. Um, just they're getting to the age where they can play more and more. And so watching them like laugh with each other, or the big brother um doing something silly that makes our his baby brother laugh. It's just been a recurring, very grateful for my life moment. Um that happens often. So this one's actually a question. What's one lesson this year that seniors have taught you? Um I think a lesson that I've learned this year from older adults is just in general, not one senior in specific, but in general, that as you get older, um the things that matter at like the things that seem really important continue to fade into the distance. Um, the accolades or the the wealth or the the different things, and what matters in the end are two things how you feel um alone by yourself in a room, like how you feel internally, and then the the close personal relationship. So your family and your friends, and how you treat them, they treat you, and um you know, at the end of the day, when you're 70, 80, 90, 100, that's those are the two things that matter. So just a good recurring message from the older adults that I keep on relearning. What is one thing you want families of seniors to remember this Christmas? I think remember, especially families that now have kids of their own. I think remember that 20, 30, 40 years ago, your elderly loved ones were doing the thing that you're doing now. And think about how much you'll probably miss it in 20, 30, 40 years from now when you don't have little ones or the family's grown so big that you don't the like magic of Christmas with the gifts and all the little traditions and all of that eventually um it morphs, but a lot of it ends up going away. And so realizing that they used to have these special moments, they don't really have that opportunity anymore. And so if you were to swap places with them, um, or even think swap placing, swap places with yourself, your future self 40 years from now, and you had the opportunity to come back, um how would you um involve them differently to knowing that they want more than anything to be in your position making magic happen for their kids or grandkids or whatever? Um, and so think of that and then say, How can I help make that happen? Even if it's like a FaceTime call to grandma on Christmas morning, just saying, Hey, look, this is Wesley's favorite gift or whatever. What's your go-to comfort food during the holidays, and would you share it with the senior? Um, go to comfort foods, biscuits and gravy. I I'd kill for some biscuits and gravy. Um and like pumpkin pie. And would I share it with the senior as long as they don't have a lactose allergy or diabetes? Because then I can share it with them. I would share anything with anyone. Um, but yeah, so biscuits and gravy um and and pumpkin pie. And if they asked, I'd share. I'd make them actually. I make some pretty killer homemade biscuits and homemade gravy. So second to last, what is your Christmas prayer or wish for the seniors and families that we serve specifically? Um I think my wish would just to be that they can reflect on 2025 and their life and realize how much of an impact that they've had, um, and show themselves some some gratitude, look internally and be like, Man, thank you for getting me to this point in my life. Um, that's what my wish would be, that they can realize the impact that they've had. Last question, let's make it a good one. What's the most hilarious thing a senior or caregiver said to you this year? Um this isn't a client of ours or anything, but I was talking to an older gentleman about my wife's dog. Um it's a Shitsu Yorky mix, and so the the people call it a shorty, and I was talking to him about it because we have a different dog. I love Teddy, that's her dog's name. Um, less uh, I mean, I love him less than our other dog. I love Elle, she's been in our life for like five years, anyways. So I told him that it's a shih tzuyorky or a shorty, and he said, Oh, you mean it's your shit? And I thought that was the funniest thing, just so random and out of pocket, and I thought it was hilarious. And so I usually with my wife, she was less than enthused that I said, go get your shiz. Um, anyways, so I thought that was hilarious, um, and how quickly he was able to move it up. And then something that was hilarious that my grandpa said to me, not this year, um, but when I was in high school, he came to one of my high school, he was out of state, so he had a really hard time coming to support like all the extracurriculars. But I played football in high school, I was a receiver, and he came to one game ever. Um, I loved it that he was there, it meant it meant the world. And then after the game, and mind you, my grandpa doesn't talk a lot, he's just a very like old cowboy. And uh he said one thing about the game, or he said, like, good game, but they need to strap a rocket to your back. And so just it's such a funny way of telling me that I was slow as molasses. Um I thought that was hilarious, and it still is like one of my favorite stories is that my grandpa told me I need to strap a rocket onto my back to be able to actually score touchdowns. So, anyways, 2025 has been a good year. I'm excited for this Christmas season. Um, if I had to leave any advice for you or one action item, FaceTime an elderly loved one of yours on Christmas morning and just let them be a part of it. I know that it's really hard to get to their house a lot of times or to try to gather in a small group. So just FaceTime them and let them be a part of the magic, the magic that you're making for your kids who are their grandkids, um, or even the magic yourself, as you like think about how you're probably still their little baby in their eyes. And so if you want to uh you know, FaceTime them and show them your favorite gift, it's just as awesome and magical for them, probably as it was when you were a little kid. So involve them and make it so that way this holiday season is something that they're excited about and that they can treasure as well. And that is our Christmas edition of Senior Care Academy.