Woman @ 90, wins national care giver award

 

                      

Ninety-year-old Mary Hartsock is a special woman who still works and takes care of other senior citizens.

Now, she’s won National Caretaker of the Year for Right at Home, the company she works for. And one of her clients says, it couldn’t go to a more beautiful lady.

Lloyd Diggs’ is an 89-year old Navy Veteran. He has a hard time getting around these days, with some pain in his legs, back, and side, and he needs help cleaning up around the house, as well as getting medication. So through the VA, he found Right at Home, an in-home care and assistance company, which sends someone out during the week to help Diggs with day-to-day things. And they sent Mary to see Diggs’ twice a week. But Mary is older than her client. “I’m in good hands of a lovely person. Like I said, I couldn’t want anything better,” Diggs said.

At 90, Mary has been named Caretaker of the Year for the entire company, nationwide. She beat out 15,000  other caretakers. Something she calls a huge honor. And her boss couldn’t be more proud.
                               “I’m so pleased for Mary and really honored for this distinction, and I hope she’ll be around with us for many years to come,” said Carole Luber, Owner of Right at Home in Frederick. They flew Mary out to Omaha for five days, put her up in a hotel suite and attended an awards banquet. She was like a celebrity, even making a speech on stage in front of almost 900 people, where she said her “thank you’s.”
                                        A mother with one son, two grandsons and two great-grandsons, Mary has no desire to slow down or retire. She says she doesn’t think it’s healthy to just sit at home and watch TV all day, but she does like to watch sports occasionally – especially NASCAR – on the weekends. Tony Stewart is her favorite driver. Mary’s dedication to caregiving extends to volunteer work with the Alzheimer’s Association and AMVETS, an organization that assists military veterans. Alzheimer’s is a cause close to her heart, partly because her father and brother both died of the disease.