A live-in carer helped the Killeen family look after their beloved uncle, right up to the end

Louise Killeen comes from a close-knit family in Shannonbridge, Co Offaly. A youth support worker and psychotherapist with the Irish Wheelchair Association – her “dream job” – she grew up living over, and helping out in, her family’s pub, Killeen’s Village Tavern.

One of seven siblings, it was a large family and an extended one at that. “Our grandparents, our grand aunt and another aunt were all there too. At one stage there were 14 of us,” she says.

Throughout all of that time her uncle Derry, her father’s brother, also lived with them. He was a constant presence in her childhood who, she recalls, taught her how to fish.

When her parents retired and the pub was sold five years ago, her mother, father and uncle all moved to a bungalow across the road from it.

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Derry was her father’s younger brother, and a former ESB worker who “worked hard all his life”, says Louise. However, 40 years ago he was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour, and although he had a successful operation, “it left him with complex issues which started to show up in the last 10 years,” she says.

“He was suffering falls and began to lose the power in his legs, to the point that he couldn’t walk any more.”

Tests revealed cancer had returned and from 2014 on he began to suffer a gradual decline. However it was really only when the pub was sold and Derry and her parents had moved into the bungalow together that his true care needs emerged.

“In a way, the pub masked the fact that he needed help, because there were always people there, including customers, to pick him up if he fell. But in the bungalow it became harder because it was just my parents, who are in their 80s, so it was a worry,” she recalls.

As with so many families around the country, it came to a point where Derry needed care support. “Initially some ladies doing home help from the village came in and out to help with things like washing and dressing, which worked for a while. By that stage, Derry was not very mobile. Even with a walking aid he’d only be able to walk the length of the kitchen, and that’s all,” she says.

“By last year it was getting to the stage where he needed a hoist to get from the bed to his chair, and the HSE was saying he needs more care than the people in the village can offer. They suspected he needed 24-hour care,” she explains.

A private company was engaged to provide a rota of care workers, both day and night. “Derry was mentally alert to the end and absolutely did not want to go into a nursing home. He wanted to be at home,” says Louise.

“It was a wonderful service but it was very expensive and it was also a bit chaotic in that carers were in and out all the time, sometimes different people would be coming, and on some occasions, wouldn’t turn up at all,” she says. Because she lives in Loughrea, Co Galway, a 45 minute drive away, it was her brother in Shannonbridge who was shouldering the lion’s share of the stress.

“So one day I just Googled affordable live-in homecare, and I found ALHomecare,” she says. “I saw they were running a webinar so I jumped on it, with my aunt and one of my cousins, and asked the owner, Tom Quinlan, loads of questions. Cost was a big one but really we just wanted to be sure that we could get someone suitable for Derry’s needs. There were three packages available and we went for the Advanced Carer, liking the fact that there would be an agency in the background for support,” she says.

As part of the process, she and her family had to submit photos of the bungalow, and of Derry, and of the bedroom in which the live in carer would stay. “You also have to provide details of who else will be living in the house, and the level of service required,” says Louise.

“ALHomecare then sent back profiles of all the care workers available. It all happened within a couple of days and the person we were most drawn to was Frankie, a 48-year-old woman from Barcelona with loads of experience. One of her references said ‘she feels like a family member’. So we set up a Zoom call with Frankie, myself, my aunt and cousin, and ended up chatting for an hour. She said ‘I’d love to do it’, and we said ‘we’d love to have you’,” she recalls.

They booked Frankie’s flight straight away and Louise picked her up from the airport. That was four months ago, in September.

“With ALHomecare you get a three-week trial period with the carer but we knew within two days that she was the perfect match. Derry loved her straight away. He had a very sarcastic sense of humour and she just got him. She came in, she saw, and she knew exactly what to do. Right from the start Derry was ‘her boy’. We saw she felt very strongly that it was her job to mind and protect him,” says Louise.

Having Frankie move in lifted everyone’s spirits. “It wasn’t just Derry, it was my parents that benefited too because she just brought so much fun and laughter to the house. She also got everything organised. I was her point of contact and she’d call me if she needed this or that, or to be brought to the shop. It’s really important that the carer has a point of contact in the family,” she adds.

“Just having her there was hugely reassuring for all of us. My mum was a nurse but I can’t tell you the level of stress we had before Frankie came. When Derry’s care became palliative, Frankie knew how to keep him comfortable. She kept everything so clean, she was determined he wouldn’t get an infection. Every time he had a sore, she was on it.”

Sadly Derry passed away earlier this year. Frankie was right there in the room with all the family, supporting him to the end. “He passed at home so peacefully, which is what he wanted,” says Louise.

To find out more about ALHomecare’s affordable live-in homecare service and avail of their three-week trial period, visit www.alhomecare.ie or phone their inquiry lines: 087 991 6791 or 087 744 0729