Caring is her calling
The pay is low, and the clients can sometimes be grouchy. Still, Tama Lewis says she’s found her calling. Out of thousands of candidates, the 64-year-old Randolph woman recently was chosen Aide of the Year by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts for her unflappable personality, insightful nature, warmth, and tact in caring for home-bound patients.
Lewis, who works for Visiting Angels of Newton and Canton, has been cooking, cleaning, and becoming like family to her patients for 16 years. But it was her extraordinary care of a 90-year-old retired Milton optometrist, who had Alzheimer’s disease and then succumbed in May to pancreatic cancer, that distinguished Lewis. Here is an edited version of a recent conversation with Lewis. KAY LAZAR
Q. Why are you drawn to this job?
A. When I can make somebody feel good, or put a smile on their face, that is rewarding for me. And when I go home after that, I might be stressed out, but I can say I did something good, I made someone laugh.
Q. How did you win over the Milton optometrist, who apparently was a very difficult patient?
A. I always got him to go for walks. I would say to him, “Would you like to go for a walk?’’ He would say, “No I want to go driving.’’ I would say, “I tell you what. If you take a walk with me, when you come back, I’ll take you for a drive.’’ And he would say, “OK.’’ I always got around his grouchiness. I would do word puzzles with him. He would mess up sometimes, and I would show him how, and we would play dominoes.
Q. You sound like you miss him.
A. I do, I really do. I was right there with him when the last breath left his body. He was 90 when he died. He was a fighter.
Q. What has been the toughest case you handled?
A. A lady who had a grandson who was living with her, and I would go in the morning and see her bruised up. He would say she fell. I started wondering. A couple of times, she would say she had money certain places and she couldn’t find it. He would have excuses. I related to the agency that something was going on and that I thought he was doing some kind of drugs. The family kind of knew he was stealing from her, but weren’t doing anything about it. The grandmother loved him so much she would cover for him. I found out what was really going on and called up the agency. They got him the help he needed. He was rehabilitated. And I knew she wasn’t being hurt anymore. 