Theresa Ramlogan
President
As a child growing up in Trinidad, my first experience with care started while I was a teenager taking care of my grandparents. One of my grandmothers had diabetes while the other had a heart condition.
In school, I pursued the study of being a pharmacy tech and nurse. I landed my first job as a pharmacy technician with the hospital at the age of 19 part-time while spending the remainder of my time taking care of my grandparents. One of my grandmothers passed in 1990, while my other grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. I quit working and devoted all my time to taking care of her. That was a heartbreaking moment for me but it was a learning peak. She died in 1994. Her last dying wish was to see me get married in which she was able to see a few months before she passed.
My husband Henry and I had continued to take care of the elderly in our remaining time in Trinidad. In October 1995 we migrated to the United States from Trinidad. That same year we landed jobs from the help of my aunt as housekeepers to go to school.
In early 1996; we met our Jewish mother Mrs. Lipsitz who came into our lives as a tremendous blessing. We started off as her housekeepers and she immediately fell in love with my husband and I's method of work. A few months into working for her, she had Henry and I promise her if she were to ever fall sick we'd quit working as housekeepers and become her caretakers and nurse. So by that time I already had my LPN, HHA, CNA, PCA, and Hospice certificates.
Long and behold while I was looking for a job with an agency I received a phone call from Mrs. Lipsitz who broke her collar bone and was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had Henry and I pack our bags and move in with her in 2000. Upon doctors giving her 9 months to live, under Henry and I's care she lived 2 years. Her last words to me were "I bless you and Henry to go out into the world to take care of people. Take care of people in there last days that they'll feel it's there best years. Make a difference in the world, care for my people with love, dignity, and compassion like you did for me."
Home care isn't about income for me, it's my lifeline. I don't do it by choice but because it's my calling that's shut up within my bones that I love to do. I, along with my team love to go out into the field, meet new patients offering the best quality care. I tell my aides daily 'love and care go together, and love is an action word. With love, you will go forth and accomplish anything. To my belief love is one of the commandments we ought to live by daily. With that being said let us go forth into the world in a positive way to make a difference and make life wonderful for every single patient we come in contact with. Let there lives never be the same again in a beautiful way.