Editor’s note: Home Sweet Home is a regular feature appearing in McKnight’s Home Care Daily. The story will focus on a heartwarming, entertaining or quirky happening affecting the world of home care. If you have a topic that might be worthy of the spotlight in Home Sweet Home, please email Diane Eastabrook at [email protected].
It might have been fate or perhaps divine intervention that led Bill Glover to caregiving at age 60. But whatever the reason, the Charleston, SC, man has truly found his calling in life as a caregiver with Nebraska-based Home Instead.
“For the people I take care of, I am serving them, but I am also serving the Lord in them. It makes work an absolute joy,” Glover told McKnight’s Home Care Daily.
Glover’s passion for people and caregiving are the reasons Home Instead selected the 66-year-old out of its 65,000 staff members to win their 2021 Caregiver of the Year award. In selecting Glover, Home Instead co-founder Lori Hogan called him “a shining example of what we all should strive to be.”
Glover spent most of his career counseling adolescents. While he chose caregiving as a vocation later in life following his wife’s death, he seemed destined for the role. Growing up, Glover had a close relationship with his grandfather who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
Memories of grandfather
“I remember he went out walking in our neighborhood and he would go a block and get lost. That stuck with me all these years, how terrified he was,” he said. “Part of me said ‘you can’t let another human being go through this.’ That’s why the folks here have been very gracious and have let me work with a lot of dementia patients because that is my real love.”
Glover typically cares for up to three patients at a time and immerses himself in their illnesses.
“I read everything I can get my hands on. I have a new case now with a gentleman who has ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). I try to know everything I can about the illness when I’m working with these folks,” said Glover.
Glover also immerses himself in his patients’ backstories, getting to know their interests, their family histories and how they have lived their lives.
“If I can keep stimulating their minds, by bringing up those things, it tends to calm them down when they get upset,” Glover said.
Hard to say good-bye
Those connections have helped Glover forge deep bonds with his patients and their families. But those deep bonds can make it difficult when it’s time to say good-bye.
“It really becomes a genuine relationship of love. I love these folks. They become my family. That sounds crazy, but they really do,” Glover said.
Being named Caregiver of the Year humbles Glover who has set a goal of working as a caregiver for another 20 years. He advises retirees who seek purpose to consider caregiving as a second act.
“I wake up every morning and I can’t wait to get to work. I love being with my clients,” he said.
