I remember feeling overwhelmed when I walked into the home of Ms. Franklin, an older woman who lived by herself. Her home was in a state of disrepair and overrun with crawling pests. Although she was legally blind, she was still healthy and eager to remain in her own home, but she knew she needed help.

She couldn’t see to cook a meal by herself, to clean her home thoroughly, or to go shopping by herself. Her children were grown, had moved away, and had very little time to help her as they had children of their own to care for. Ms. Franklin had lived alone since her husband died some years ago.

She qualified for a low-cost homemaker service for the elderly, but her home was in such disarray when the first homemaker arrived, that the homemaker’s supervisor requested another assessment of the situation. I was asked to visit her and assist in determining what could be done to save her home.

I remember I felt inadequate to determine how to best proceed, but when I arrived and saw the home, I realized that this was an overwhelming problem. I found empty home delivered meal containers Ms. Franklin received daily from the senior center stacked in a corner. I saw that cockroaches had infested every room in her house. The house was old and poorly built and the floors were uneven and unsafe for her. In addition, winter was coming and her furnace no longer worked.

The Case Worker, homemaker, and I talked with Ms. Franklin for hours trying to determine what could be done to help her and save her home. It took many hours and several visits, but she came to realize that she must move out of her home to a safer place of residence in the community. Her new home was an apartment in the public housing senior citizen high rise building.

At first, she didn’t like the idea much but she knew she had to move as winter was coming on. She didn’t have enough money to fix her furnace or pay for the high cost of heating the house in the winter months even if the furnace was fixed.

But her house, even in its current state of disrepair, was her home. Leaving it after nearly fifty years was difficult for her. I understood how difficult it was for her to leave her home where she had lived with her husband and raised her children.

The Case Worker and I did what we could to ease the move into the high rise building and help her adjust to her new apartment. Not only did the homemaker service assist Ms. Franklin with cleaning her home, but the homemaker also helped with her shopping, laundry, personal care, and transportation to the doctor.

Nearly always when an older person asks for the assistance of a homemaker, all that is needed is a little cleaning and maintenance in the home. However, sometimes an older person’s pride or lack of knowledge of the help available causes an unsafe delay in requesting assistance. Ms. Franklin was in unsafe and potentially disastrous circumstances when she finally called for help.

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