Hi. Welcome to my website. My name is Rosemarie. I am a caregiver. I live and work in New York City.

My life as a Caregiver has always revolved around the people I care for - at home, work, and my community. Growing up, I lived with my grandmother and her family. As one of the oldest of 39 maternal cousins, I started babysitting since I was 7 or 8 years old. I learned to feed, change, and bathe babies; hand-wash (yes, including dirty diapers), hang clothes on clothesline to dry, iron, and fold baby clothes . Since then, I realized that I will always be taking care of people no matter how, what, and when. So, when I went to college, I focused my studies in caring for people. I got my degrees in Community Health and Nursing. And while attending college, I worked at the hospital caring for patients. The rest is history.

I dedicated my whole life to my vocation, my profession, and career as a caregiver. I found joy in helping and caring for others. The smiles, the thank you 's and appreciations I received from my patients and their families, gave me the energy and reason to show up and give all my best every day. I worked 8, 10, 12, or 16 hours a day or 40, 60, and some times 80 hours a week. I slept 3 - 4 hours a day. I ate 1 or 2 meals a day. I went to the bathroom 1 or 2 times during my shifts, especially when my patients were unstable. I drank coffee all day. I ran and on my feet all day. As time went by and got older, I now wake up with aches and pains in my whole body. I get up anyways and endure it because I have to get ready and go to work to care for people. It has become a routine that I expect to wake up with pain everyday - it became my norm. After awhile, helping and caring for people became difficult. It's not because of lacking passion or love for helping people. It's bigger and more serious than the aches and pains my body feel everyday. It is because the reality of life: short staffing, bullying, gossiping, mental, physical, and verbal abuse, low wages, and underappreciated.

I do not regret that I pursued my vocation. I love every moment that I spend helping and caring for people. My regret is that I did not use my time wisely. It is admirable to be loyal and dedicated to ones passion. But passion is not the only thing that is important in life. There's me, I am important. My family, are important. My friends, are important. I wish I could turn back time and take back what I have lost and failed to do, for me and my family. Wishing and hoping for it to be better is useless at this point. It is now necessary for me to start taking action and taking control of my time, to take care of myself. My mission as a caregiver is to start caring for myself and teach my fellow caregivers how to get healthier and happier - physically (body and mind), personally (communication and relationships), and professionally (finances and value exchanges). My hope is that, together, we can build on the passion that already exists within all of us so that we are continuously striving to be the best version of ourselves.

I believe that as a caregiver, my health and joy are the fundamental of unconditional care I give to others.