The Heart of Home Care

Eloise Davis may be small in stature, but she’s large in heart.

At 88, she lives alone in a small faded yellow house with white trim in Tylertown. Most days are quiet. The television hums late into the night – old Jimmy Swaggart sermons, westerns, and if she’s lucky, Cheyenne starring Clint Walker.

But twice a week, there’s a break in the silence. Before there’s ever a knock on the door, a black cat affectionately known as Mammaw has already made her way to the back porch, anticipating what’s to come as a car she’s come to listen for pulls into the yard at the back of the house.

Forrest Health Home Care Nurse Becky Williams has arrived. Becky, a registered nurse, has been taking care of Ms. Eloise for three years.

She grabs her bag from the backseat and walks up to a window on the back of the house where she gently taps on the windowpane. It’s Ms. Eloise’s signal to know Becky has arrived.

Ms. Eloise slowly makes her way to the back door. When she opens it, an excited Mammaw runs in underfoot and Becky’s happy smile greets her.

Becky heads straight for the bag of cat food and ushers Mammaw onto the back porch for a much-anticipated meal before getting down to business with Ms. Eloise.

The visits are part routine, part ritual.

Becky charts Ms. Eloise’s vitals, listens to her heart and lungs, looks for swelling in her legs and makes sure that and her weight are under control. She gives Ms. Eloise a clean bill of health this day. She then moves to the couch and starts sorting an array of medications into bright boxes, making sure every pill is in its proper slot.

Becky orders all the medications Ms. Eloise requires. Once delivered, Ms. Eloise places them to the side to await Becky’s next visit.

During this time the two may listen to music, watch television, or catch up on each other’s lives, whether that’s Ms. Eloise reminiscing about the past – her family or her time in New Orleans, or Becky talking about recent adventures with her daughter.

Because of some falls Ms. Eloise has had, one outside and even one that found her unable to get to her phone, Becky worked to get her hooked up with a fall alert system. Ms. Eloise wears a bracelet on her wrist and has another on a table that can be activated in case of a fall. “In the event something happens, they call me,” said Becky.

Becky has also been working to get an appointment for Ms. Eloise to see an eye doctor, so she can get her eyes checked and get glasses so she can see better.

And after some recent dental issues, Becky is working with a specialty clinic in Liberty to help get Ms. Eloise some dentures where she can eat all those delicious foods she has enjoyed for so long – peanuts, chicken, and the like.  

If Becky notices any health-related problems, she notifies Dr. Carla Armstrong, a family and ER physician at Forrest Health’s Walthall General Hospital, who is also Ms. Eloise’s primary care physician. Becky gets orders to do whatever Dr. Armstrong thinks necessary to keep Ms. Eloise’s health on the right track. “The main thing I do is to make sure her sugar is good, her blood pressure is good, she can breathe well, and she’s taking her medications like she should,” said Becky.  “We’re able to do a good job with Ms. Eloise by managing her medications for her, which is something she really struggled with.

“I believe one of the reasons she’s done so well is because we at Home Health come and help look after her. It seems to make her happy. I am trying to help her stay at home as long as possible without having to go to a nursing home, because she really doesn’t want that.”

All about others

Ms. Eloise has spent most of her life taking care of others.

She grew up one of nine children in a sharecropper family on the outskirts of town. She began working at the age of 10 and never really stopped. She didn’t have much education, but enjoyed school while she was there.

She moved to New Orleans at about 19, working her way through jobs at The Tabernacle and Roosevelt hotels before spending 20 years with Texaco, riding elevators through the 17 floors the oil giant occupied. It was there that she delivered mail and other materials.

She moved back to Tylertown when things became uncomfortable for a young woman to be living alone in the city. Back at home, she cared for people who couldn’t care for themselves – cooking, cleaning, sitting beside them so they wouldn’t be alone. One lady was a paraplegic, a man was blind, and another was confined to a wheelchair.

“They became like family,” she said. “When they passed, it hurt me bad.”

Now, she is the one being cared for.

Time has brought its share of challenges – arthritis across her body which causes daily pain and slow and awkward ambulation causing her not to be able to raise her arms very far; a stroke, neuropathy, and diabetes – but independence is something Ms. Eloise holds onto tightly. According to Becky, Ms. Eloise does everything she can for herself and often laughs saying she can do it, “it’s just slow.”

She’s turned down extra in-home assistance, saying “as long as I can take care of myself, I will.” She washes her clothes and bathes and dresses herself – slowly, but always with a smile. A walker, rollator, and a quad cane help her get around. She’s comfortable here.

Other than an occasional trip to the doctor or dentist, it’s just her, the television, and the quiet, with sometimes an occasional meow from Mammaw and a new brood of kittens she’s proudly brought to the back porch to show off.

Keeping a watchful eye

Her siblings – six brothers and two sisters – are all gone. “I’m the only one left,” she said.

But she doesn’t forget Becky. She considers her an honorary daughter or granddaughter. And then there’s Becky’s daughter, Aubrey, who sometimes stops in with her mother. They talk about the five horses Aubrey rides. Ms. Eloise does not. “I rode one time,” she said. “That was enough.”

It’s small moments such as this that bring her joy and fill the quiet space she lives with.

Ms. Eloise doesn’t want to be a burden. She has Becky’s phone number, but doesn’t want to bother her. Becky sees it differently noting, “Anytime she needs me, I come,” she said. “She’s my adopted Mammaw, and if she’d come live with me, I’d come get her.

“Ms. Eloise doesn’t ever worry about anything. She’s so laid back. She worries about the stuff she can do something about, but the other stuff she just turns over to God.”

Becky is much the same way. “I do worry all the time about my patients,” she said. “I try to keep everything professional, but when you see these people every week for years, you get attached and they become more like family. I love them.

“Ms. Eloise is my friend. She gets lonely, and I try to visit while I’m there filling her meds. We talk about all kinds of things. I ask her about when she was young, and I listen to all of her stories. She likes to tell me about her time in New Orleans. I try to be observant and ask her if she needs anything each week. I don’t have any grandparents, so it surely doesn’t hurt me to help her in any way I can. She never asks me for anything. I offer or just go get it for her. I try to do that for any of my patients.

“Some like Ms. Eloise really don’t have anyone. It’s hard not to get personal. God places things on my heart, and I just try to follow what He wants me to do. I do it because it’s the right thing to do, and I would want others to treat my family the way I try to treat my patients. I make sure the ones that need meals get them, so I set them up with Meals on Wheels. I set up transportation when needed. I call and check on them when the weather is turning cold or bad weather is coming to make sure they know about it ahead of time. I make sure they have their medications and oxygen has backup if we expect weather to be bad. It’s a lot to keep up with.”

Becky works about 32 hours a week out of Forrest Health’s Tylertown office, and goes wherever they need her. She started out in pre-vet medicine, but quickly switched to humans and nursing for the last 16 years. She’s been a part of the medical field since she was 19, working in the ER as a tech or unit secretary, insurance, and surgery. “I’ve done a little bit of everything. I love my older patients,” she said. “I love being able to come in and give them peace of mind.”

After a visit that seems much quicker than Ms. Eloise would like, Becky packs up her things and gets ready to head to the next address on her patient list. She still has two patients to see before her day is over, and she makes the 45-minute drive back to her home in Liberty.

With her departure, quietness descends on the house once again. But Ms. Eloise delights in knowing that Becky will be back.

“She’s so nice and sweet, and she takes good care of me,” Ms. Eloise says simply. “I know all of her other patients love her, because I do. I wouldn’t want anybody else but her. She’s been with me so long I don’t know what I would do without her.”

It’s a simple truth, but one that carries weight. No matter how fiercely we hold to our independence, we all need somebody to care for us.

And for patients like Ms. Eloise, Forrest Health Home Health Care makes it possible to receive that care right where they are most comfortable – at home – offering not just medical support, but dignity, peace of mind, and the kind of connection that turns caregivers into somebody more like family.

If you or someone you love could benefit from care at home, Forrest Health Home Health Care is here to help. Visit forresthealth.org to learn more.