Rose Yonushka keeps three words in mind as she does her work: caring, kind, patient.

Rhose are the qualities that have made her a star caregiver at Home Instead in Luzerne. That’s why this year, the folks in the local office named her CAREgiver of the Year.

Yonushka was honored Tuesday in a ceremony at the Bennett Street offices of Home Instead and took home a plaque and a collection of certificates.

“This is quite an honor,” she said. “But it’s not at all the reason I do what I do. I just love what I do. It’s great to get up every morning and look forward to your job.”

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Yonushka will be the first to tell anyone the job of helping elderly area citizens to be able to stay in their own homes is not a job anyone should do for accolades. Or even a paycheck.

“It’s more of a calling,” she said. “For me, it’s a way to help somebody out. So many of these elderly people are dealing with the aches and pains, whatever age brings with it. These are people who contributed to society in their lives and now they just need a little help from someone else.”

She tries to understand how each elderly client might feel as he or she deals with scary aspects of aging – not being able to get around easily or cook as he or she once did. When eyesight fails, the world begins to disappear. When Alzheimer’s progresses, so does frustration at knowing there is something to remember, but not being able to.

Yonushka said she pays attention to the “little things,” clients’ likes and dislikes, the things that might disturb them. She works at understanding how uncomfortable, even frightening, it might be to have a stranger come into someone’s personal space, their home, even if it’s to help.

“Besides, every day I learn something from my clients,” she said with a grin. “Mary (one of her current clients) taught me the best way to fold a fitted sheet the other day. And last week she taught me how to make peanut brittle. And Mary has Alzheimer’s.”

Yonushka said she realize she was cut out for this kind of work when she took care of her own parents and her in-laws as they aged. Only her father-in-law is left now, but she – and her entire family – make sure he is comfortable in his own home in Duryea.

At the same time she was caring for elderly relatives, Yonushka worked outside the home – 27 years at the Topps Company. After that company closed, she went to school at Luzerne County Community College to learn how to be a business manager and spent another 15 years as a scheduler with the Cinran Group in Olyphant.

After she retired a decade ago, she decided sitting home was not something she wanted to do.

“I started looking in the paper for a part-time job,” she said. “The Home Instead had an ad in the paper, I came down here, applied, and someone here saw something in me. I was almost hired on the spot.”

Yonushka usually has three “regular” clients at a time, some whom she sees daily, some for only one or two days a week. When changes occur in a client’s life or needs, Home Instead will assign her to new ones.

She’s been at the job for 10 years and only missed work for brief periods, once after she broke a shoulder and the other time when she underwent surgery to remove a cancerous kidney.

“I couldn’t wait to get back to work after the surgery,” she said. “I was back in three weeks.”

Yonushka said she appreciated the myriad of training sessions offered by the company – things like lifting clients or helping with personal hygiene or dealing with dementia, Parkinson’s Disease or Alzheimer’s.

“I’m not a nurse. I’m just a regular person,” she said. “We can organize people’s meds for them, but that’s about all.”

Helping a senior keep track of pills is only one thing in a day that can mean doing light housework, fixing breakfast or lunch for a client, doing the grocery shopping – or accompanying the client to the store. Sometimes it means playing a game or watching television with the client, just keeping him or her company.

“One of my clients has a problem with glaucoma, so I read the newspaper to him every day,” she said.

CAREgiver of the Year is an annual contest sponsored by the Home Instead Senior Care Corproate in Omaha NE, and Yonushka’s name has been placed in competition with 350 CAREgivers from across the United States. Next month, the corporate offices will release the names of competition finalists and in April, the company’s CAREgiver of the Year will be honored at the company’s international convention.

“We can’t say enough good things about Rose,” said Alyssa Maria, co-owner of Home Instead in Luzerne. “She is a loving, caring person who does wonderful work to help everyone she comes in contact with.”

Rose Yonushka, of Pittston, right, smiles after she recieves the CAREgiver of the Year award from Home Instead Senior Care owner Alyssa Maria in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PSD012917Caregiver1.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka, of Pittston, right, smiles after she recieves the CAREgiver of the Year award from Home Instead Senior Care owner Alyssa Maria in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch

Rose Yonushka sits next to her father-in-law Joseph ‘Nicky’ Yonushka before she is awarded the CAREgiver of the Year award at Home Instead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PSD012917Caregiver2.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka sits next to her father-in-law Joseph ‘Nicky’ Yonushka before she is awarded the CAREgiver of the Year award at Home Instead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch

Rose Yonushka, of Pittston, waits for the ceremony to start where she will be awarded the CAREgiver of the Year by Home Insead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PSD012917Caregiver3.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka, of Pittston, waits for the ceremony to start where she will be awarded the CAREgiver of the Year by Home Insead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch

Rose Yonushka, of Pittston, right, smiles after she recieves the CAREgiver of the Year award from Home Instead Senior Care owner Alyssa Maria in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_Caregiver1.CMYK_.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka, of Pittston, right, smiles after she recieves the CAREgiver of the Year award from Home Instead Senior Care owner Alyssa Maria in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch

Rose Yonushka sits next to her father-in-law Joseph ‘Nicky’ Yonushka before she is awarded the CAREgiver of the Year award at Home Instead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_Caregiver2.CMYK_.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka sits next to her father-in-law Joseph ‘Nicky’ Yonushka before she is awarded the CAREgiver of the Year award at Home Instead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch

Rose Yonushka, of Pittston, waits for the ceremony to start where she will be awarded the CAREgiver of the Year by Home Insead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_Caregiver3.CMYK_.jpg.optimal.jpgRose Yonushka, of Pittston, waits for the ceremony to start where she will be awarded the CAREgiver of the Year by Home Insead Senior Care in Luzerne on Tuesday, January 24. 1/24/17. Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch Sean McKeag | Sunday Dispatch
Pittston woman honored for services

By Gina Thackara

For Sunday Dispatch

Reach the Sunday Dispatch newsroom at 570-655-1418 or by email at sd@s24530.p831.sites.pressdns.com.