I grew up on a small farm in Connecticut with old school values, a sense of responsibility and respect. Those values are still the foundation of my life today. At the young age of 16, I petitioned the State of Connecticut to let me take an Emergency Medical Technician course. Upon graduation, I began taking care of others in my small town through volunteering on the local ambulance. Yes, our town was so small that we had a “volunteer” ambulance. My journey as a companion, working with the local VNA, started soon after.
Upon my completion of high school, I attended college while working in a nursing home for two years caring for others. Volunteering for the ambulance had given birth to the desire for emergency medicine at higher level of care. The second best school in the country for Para medicine offered me a seat in their next session. I gladly accepted with excitement!
Upon graduation, being only the third female paramedic in Connecticut, I was honored to be chosen by the Bloomfield Police Department to start a new paramedic service in their town where I remained for nine years. Our transport times were often as long as thirty minutes. As you can imagine, a lot can go wrong in thirty minutes. Being a paramedic isn’t glamorous or sexy. It is pulling bleeding people out of crashed cars, helping the elderly in the middle of the night when they’ve fallen and broken a hip, or holding a daughter when all your efforts failed and her Mom or Dad have passed. It takes nerves of steel to deal with many of the crisis situations that are part of being a paramedic, however, it is extremely rewarding to know that I’m giving the best possible care to those in crisis.
The most exciting part of my career after twenty years was working on the “fly” car in Newington and West Hartford, CT. I would be the first to arrive, many times before the police department, on the scene of an emergency and treat the patient until the ambulance or helicopter came to transport them to the hospital.
I retired from medicine in the large metropolis of Hartford with many exciting and fond memories. Two to three shooting and a stabbing were the norm per night. I happily returned to companion care. An opportunity presented itself to leave the chilly north for the warmer weather of Florida. I couldn’t refuse!
I attended the police academy in Fort Pierce, Florida in 2013. I tore my ACL in the last two weeks of the academy in which I was required to take the last month’s segment over again and pass before I was allowed to sit for the final state exam. One month later, with a torn ACL, I passed the final high liability agility test and school exam. The following day; I was in surgery for my ACL repair. There is something to be said for mental toughness!
After working with a local police department for eight months, I realized that my love of caregiving was not being fulfilled. I was taught to see the worst in people not the best. It went against my nature. I knew that I was being called back to do what I loved to do. It all goes back to years on a small farm in Connecticut, caring for people with old school values.
And now, more than ever, I know that I can change lives as a caregiver especially when I see how the elderly that I encounter are being taken advantage of, disrespected, and ignored. This frustrates me tremendously! It’s rare to see companions and aids making their clients top priority. Most are just passing time on their cell phones and trying to make money.
I’ve made a personal commitment to change that…client-by-client, experience-by-experience and hug-by-hug. I started my own agency with the client and their families in mind. My goal is to put a smile back on their faces by providing nothing less than a standard of excellence in my quality of care and give them the respect and compassion that they deserve. Wendy Meyer, founder CCC