Nomination Letter

Written by Rampi Hijzain, Co-owner, BrightStar Care of Charlotte S.

I am nominating Carmen Streete for Caregiver of the Year for 2022. Carmen has been a valuable member of our BrightStar Care South Charlotte office since November of 2017. Carmen has a beautiful soul and gives so much of herself to her clients when she assists them. She’s patient and tries to put herself in her client’s shoes. The care she provides our clients is so loving, compassionate and kind.

Carmen recently said that one day she’s going to get up in age and when her time comes, she hopes others will do for her, what she’d done for families. Carmen has become a treasured member of our BrightStar Care family and we thank her daily for being a part of our family/team.

I knew when I first met Carmen, that she was someone special. Carmen had a way about her that I knew she could handle any situation I put her in. We placed Carmen with one of our most challenging cases that our agency has had in the 11 years that we’ve been open. The assignment was to help a couple, Mel and Alice. Alice had late-stage Alzheimer’s/Dementia and was a previous elementary school teacher. She has the most loving demeanor, and though she had lost most of her ability to communicate, her facial expressions and body language would tell you so much of what she felt in the moment. Mel loved and adored Alice and he’d tell you every minute that he got the chance.

Mel had a tougher personality to work with. He was musician by trait and loved to play his accordion which had caused him to lose a lot of his hearing. Mel always felt no one could provide quality care to Alice as he did but would tell you he gave into Alice and his sons’ wishes to allow someone to come in the home and help Alice. Mel felt Alice’s cognitive decline was something that could be improved with organic foods and that no medication could do the job of just good care. He felt that he knew what was best for Alice and that our trained team members didn’t understand. This obviously could make the assignment challenging for any team member going into the home.

Prior to sending Carmen to Mel and Alice’s, I fully disclosed the environment and the challenges others had gone through and Carmen simply responded, “It’s no problem Rampi. I can handle Mel. Sometimes, you just need to let someone say what they need so they can get it off their chest and move on. I’ve dealt with worse, and the Lord knows it. I’ll be ok.”

Well, Carmen turned out to be an angel sent from heaven for this family. I praised Carmen repeatedly for all the loving compassionate care she gave Alice, especially because of the challenging circumstances of that client relationship. One evening Mel called us around 6pm and asked if Carmen had gotten home ok. I told I was almost sure she had but asked what was going on. Mel stated to me, “I was kind of mean to Carmen and when she left I kind of shushed her. I shouldn’t have done that, and now I’m worried that was the last thing I said to her. Could you find out if she got home ok?” Carmen ended up getting home fine, but when I called Mel back to tell him this, I was so surprised by the loud sigh of relief he gave and I realized, Mel really did love and admire Carmen and she was more than a caregiver to them.

Sadly, in the spring of 2021, Alice’s health continued to decline, requiring 24/7 care and her family felt she needed to be moved to a Memory Care community. It broke our hearts to see Mel and Alice split up, but both Mel and Alice’s sons felt it was best. A month after Alice moved, her sons send us a little package of appreciation to us for all we’d done for their mom in the 5 years we took care of them. In the note that accompanied the package, they said the most loving words they about Carmen, which melted my heart because it was true Carmen was an angel sent from God to their mom. It’s times like this that humble me and reminders me why we got into this business.

After Mel and Alice, Carmen was reassigned to Louis. Louis had been a retired Colonial in the Army and attended West Point as a child and had a PhD from the University of Washington in Psychology and Leadership. Louis is a brilliant man and very knowledgeable. He was also a workaholic and always told his wife, once he retired from working, they would be able to travel and see the world since he neglected their time together all these years.

In 2015, Louis’ child retained our services to help him after a debilitating stroke. Louis had to learn how to walk and talk all over again. He was proud man who became frustrated with his situation. If Louis got frustrated with his inability to stand up, he would refuse to stand up. His late wife Judy would push him constantly, but our caregiver released that by offering Louis choice and coming back to tasks, he’d end up working with you versus against you.

In 2021, Carmen was introduced to Louis. I told her Louis was a nice man, but it was all about the approach we took. He was a proud businessman that lost control of his life after his stroke, and we just needed to find him again because he was there. Carmen said she was up to the challenge and again Carmen proved me right. Carmen’s upfront, respectful approach proved her a worthy caregiver to Louis. She figured out very quickly how she could get Louis to work with her versus against her.

I could keep going on about Carmen because she’s an amazing, caring individual. We are so blessed and honored to have her on our team, and I ask you to strongly consider for your 2022 Caregiver of the Year because angels don’t come into our lives regularly but when they do, they need to be honored and recognized!