Someone Like You:
Meet a Recipient
of the 2007 "Caregiver of the Year" Award:

MoZetta Zion, Portland, Ore.

Nominated by: Herself. “There is a saying, 'Sometimes in order to get a pat on the back for doing a good job, you have to pat yourself on the back'.  I, therefore nominate myself .” Read nominating letter.

Care Recipients: The Three Sisters: Inez, MoZetta's mother, who died in August, 2007 and two aunts: Dottie Mae, 84, who resides in an assisted living facility and Lillie Mae, 83, who lives in an adult foster care home.

In MoZetta's Words:

When I feel stress, I: Ask God for strength; listen to soothing music; pray; get a facial, my nails and toes manicured or massage. 

My current challenge is: Disciplining myself to write a book about my care giving experience to help assist others. Since I am aware of the current shortage of caregivers and aware that the economic situation will cause more and more responsibility for care giving to fall in the laps of family members, I would like to help families obtain the needed skills required.  

When I have 5 extra minutes, I: Read inspirational books, look at movies or just close my eyes. 

My mantra is: Be the best caregiver I can, because one day if I live long enough I want the best caregivers taking care of me. If I live long and have medical problems my prayer is, "Lord make sure I have a good caregiver".

My support comes from: My husband, Vincent, who became a Certified Nursing Assistant in order to help care for my mother, aunts and the foster care residents. He listens to my moaning, groaning, crying, and laughter. The other day he purchased me a glass plaque with an angel perched upon the top with an inspirational message. He said, "I brought it for you, because you do so much for your family and you really want them to do well." The truth of the matter brought tears to my eyes. This act of noticeably was precious.

About getting rid of stuff when we’re older: God says, “I’m ready for you and you don’t need to bring anything but yourself.”

The legacy I would leave to another family caregiver is: Take care of yourself, because you only get one of you.  By taking care of yourself and staying in good health, you may be able to live a long productive, happy life and bring cheer and hope in the lives of others.

My goal for 2008 is:  Spread the word to others so they know they have the necessities to provide care to other families in need and help their own at the same time.

MoZetta's mother, Inez, had a heart attack the day before Mother's Day, 2007. MoZetta said a prayer: “Lord don’t let my mom die on Mother’s Day.”

Two days later, from her hospital bed, Inez told MoZetta: “I was ready to go, but the Lord said that you’re not ready. He told me to wait a just little while longer.”

And, that gave MoZetta pause. She asked herself: What do I need to do to be ready? And, so began her journey to help herself help her mom pass with peace. With Inez's help, MoZetta wrote Inez's obituary—and heard stories from her mom she hadn't never heard before. She learned where Inez wanted to be buried--she preferred to be cremated, another discovery. MoZetta made arrangements with the funeral home; Inez picked out her urn.

Then, MoZetta learned about a new opportunity for her business (she runs adult foster care homes); she could become credentialed to care for adults with special needs. She decided to become credentialed, which meant completing Continuing Education Credits (CEUs). She stopped at an administrative office to learn how to earn her CEUs. She was told: Just watch these videos, complete this paperwork and bring it back.

The staff member then looked at MoZetta: Am I making it to easy for you, she asked.

MoZetta was speechless; the videos she was to watch were of Death and Dying. “I thought they would give me videos about managing difficult behavior, body mechanics, something like that.” She was looking at the next stop to complete in her journey: Learn about the dying process.

Then, in July, MoZetta and her husband refinanced their home and paid their debts. “We have one big bill, the house note. Before when we tried to do this, we had gotten stuck in a paperwork trail and I would say, Oh, forget it.”

Then, in August, Inez fell during a transfer and broke her hip. At the hospital, she said, “I've lived long enough, it's time for me to go.” Because she refused surgery, the physician sent her home with Hospice care. “She was so calm about everything,” MoZetta says.

Once home, the Hospice nurse asked Inez: “What's going on with you?”

“I'm dying,” she answered. Then, she told MoZetta: “I want to see my best friend, my favorite niece, my grandson and my granddaughter.”

Because MoZetta had paid her debts, she had the ability to arrange and pay for airfares to meet Inez's requests. And, because MoZetta had watched the videos on death and dying, she was aware that Inez had been preparing to die. The morning before the fall, Inez told her that she “had been having a lot visitors but they’ve all been dead.” The night before she fell, she told MoZetta that her brother, Tommy, “came and sat here all night talking.”

“I had watched those tapes, so knew they see people who had gone before,” MoZetta said.

Everyone arrived to say “good-bye”; a few days later Inez quietly passed. “It was peaceful, not traumatic,” MoZetta says. It was August; MoZetta just needed three months to be ready.

Since August, MoZetta has taken time off from providing care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although she helps her aunts who reside nearby. She plans to re-open her adult foster care home that she closed in September in February. “And, since I haven’t won the lottery yet...” MoZetta says. “You can only grieve for so long before you need to pay for bread and butter.”

The hardest time for MoZetta was when she first became her mother's full-time caregiver, after Inez's stroke in 1995. “Being a nurse, I was used to taking care of other people’s family. But, with my mom: It’s not an 8-hour shift and you’re not going home.”

Going through the dying process with her mom—not as a professional, but as a daughter--was another eye-opener. The Hospice nurse recognized this and said: “It’s different now, isn’t it?”

And, interestingly enough, when asked what makes her a good caregiver, MoZetta gives credit not to her nursing skills but to her time management skills: “Because I’m an organizer, I know how to organize, I’m a good time manager. I’m not a perfectionist, but because I’m a good time manager, I know I can multi-task.”

MoZetta is also good at listening to her body when it's telling her, “Enough!” “When I feel tired, I can’t make decisions, confused about decisions, sorrowful for other people, then I know I need to recharge.” And, when she recharges she does good things for herself and bring good things into her life.

She also knows the power of pain: “Pain is the way our body calls out that something’s not right,” she says. So when she felt chest pains in November, she knew she required medical treatment. She learned she had a 90% blockage in her heart's largest artery. After the procedure to place the stent, her physician said, “You can get to your race-walking in about week.”

It's not lost on MoZetta that surviving a 90% blockage in a main artery is something of a miracle. She recognizes the blessing in having the time now to take care of her health. If she had residents in her care home, it would have difficult to leave to get the care she needed.

“I hate for things to just happen, I try to plan as much as I can,” she says. Perhaps someone else has a bigger plan for MoZetta, bigger than she can possibly plan.--Denise M. Brown

Meet Our Winners:

• Leon Beer, nominated Sharon Lebenkoff of Leeza's Place at Park Slope Geriatric Day Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• MoZetta Zion, nominated by her self
• Patty Kearns, nominated by Nancy Lewin of Johnson & Johnson Caregiver Initiative
• Norma Bell, nominated by Sharon Pease, Norma's daughter
• Kimi Morton Chun, nominated by Sheila Warnock of ShareTheCaregiving, Inc.
• Aracelis Fernandez, nominated by Diana King of PSS Caregivers Support Program, Bronx, N.Y.

And, meet winners from previous years:

(Unforeseen difficulties caused us to put the contest on hold in 2005 and 2006.)

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