Jen is a very skilled caregiver that puts her whole heart into what she does. She keeps the client laughing and enjoys what she does! I value Jen as a very important part of our Firefly family! – Rachelle, Jennifer’s Manager.
Tell us a few things about you: It gets very interesting in my house sometimes. I’ve been married to my
current husband for twelve years. We have two children together, and I have two from a previous
marriage, and he has five from a previous marriage. That makes ten children in all—five boys and five
girls. Our oldest two children are twenty-five years old and interestingly, their birthdays are four days
apart.
What did you do before becoming a caregiver? I left a career in restaurant management after twenty-
five years. The restaurant I worked at was doing renovations, and it was making me sick. I needed to do
something different, and a friend who worked as a caregiver suggested I give this a try.
Tell us about working for Firefly: I’m trying to think how long I’ve been with Firefly…four years, maybe a
bit longer? I really like working for them. Just before Covid, I was pregnant, so I turned in my notice. But
you know what? They saved my spot for me! They got in touch with me about an on-demand caregiving
position. I don’t have a set schedule. I pick up shifts when I can work them. I tend to do overnight shifts
for newer clients until Firefly can schedule a regular caregiver for them. Recently, I’ve had day time
shifts as well. It averages out to be easily thirty hours a week. Sometimes it could be fifty or more hours
if I’m filling in for people on vacations, or caregivers who are ill and can’t work their shifts. I like the
money, so if I can do it, I’ll pick up the shifts. I live in Elkhart, and I’ll pick up shifts to cover Nappanee,
Middlebury, Syracuse, South Bend, Granger, Osceola and Mishawaka—I’ll go where I’m needed.
What do you do with your clients? Mostly I do light housekeeping, laundry, dishes, sweep and mop the
floors. I cook for most of them. For one client, my cooking was one of her favorite things for me to do
and she’d have a list of things for me to cook. I cooked while she slept, even though the house smelled
of food. She thought it was funny that I’d never made a boxed Jell-O before. I asked her how to make it
and she said, “can you follow directions on the box?” We got a good laugh out of that. And now I know
how to make Jell-O! Another client likes to play gin rummy. He walloped me on our last game. I lost 675
to 455. I think he was cheating (ha ha) even though I was the one dealing the cards. We are supposed to
have a rematch on my next shift.
You are one busy person. What do you do in any free time you have? I like to read and I enjoy painting
ceramics. I make homemade dream catchers and sometimes give them away. My husband and I have a
mini vacation coming up. We are going to take our youngest two children to Indianapolis and go to the
Children’s Museum and the Indianapolis Zoo. My three-year-old loves dinosaurs and can tell you the
name of every type. He’s going to have e great time seeing all the dinosaurs at the museum.
