About Rahwa

Rahwa (Zoe) was an exceptional caregiver for my father with Parkinson's during the last year and three months of his life. She was caring, kind, respectful, hard-working, reliable, and treated my father and I as family. She was very responsive and attentive to my dad's needs and truly showed care and concern for him. She was our family's best Caregiver when my dad needed 24 hour care, and we were very grateful to have her with us during his last year of life. My father truly appreciated her as well . My only complaint is that following his passing, she would not call me when I texted her to ask her if she had 20 minutes to talk to me about what my dad was like and what he said to her during his last couple of weeks of life. She had said that my sisters and I were like family to her (I lived in the house with my dad and managed his caregivers so I knew her very well ) so this truly surprised me. So I was disappointed I did not have an opportunity to say goodbye to her or have a few final words with her regarding my father's Care in his last weeks of life. It would have really helped me to have closure on his passing to have been able to talk to her for just 20 minutes, because his departure was somewhat unexpected. I told her that and yet she could not find the time to return my call. Furthermore, she wanted two weeks of extra pay at 72 hours a week after my dad passed - or $8000 extra. We gave an extra two weeks of pay to her sister Fran who also worked for us, but it was because I had to let her go early because my dad's needs were becoming too challenging for her and he could not understand her English. It became very stressful for me, but she was a hard worker so I gave her two weeks of extra pay as a courtesy at 48 hours per week. Similarly, I offered Zoe two extra weeks of pay at 48 hours per week following my dad's passing - but because she normally worked 72 hours (mostly the overnight shift) she wanted an equivalent compensation of what she would have earned for two more weeks of work. Considering that I did not let her go but that my father simply passed on, it felt a bit greedy to me that she wanted an additional $8000 for doing nothing. We are not a corporation and so were not obligated to pay the caregivers a dime after our father passed. I gave her 98 extra hours of pay as a courtesy and she was not satisfied with that. This truly surprised me. Furthermore, after working with us for a year we gave her a pay raise from $30 to $32 an hour (we actually hired her for $25 an hour but shortly thereafter raised her to $30 after she insisted it wasn't enough to cover taxes). So in 2024 she made $115,000 with us - more money than I have ever made in my life as a professional medical writer with 20 years of experience. Most experienced professionals in this country who are US citizens - engineers, writers and CPAs for instance - don't make the kind of money Zoe made with us. While I realize that caring for my dad was at times hard work -( I know because I also took care of him) and she worked 72 hours a week, most of those hours were the night shift when there wasn't much to do except get my dad ready for bed and help him to the bathroom during the night, so I felt like her disappointment at what we paid her was unwarranted. Finally, I lent her a $350 pressure cooker which I requested back after my dad's passing, which she did not return despite several requests. Still, she did a great job at taking care of my father and for that we will always be grateful. .

John S.

7/19/2025