When she was 29 years old, Jacquelyn Revere received a phone call in May 2016 from a family friend while riding the New York City subway going to see a comedy show.
Revere needed to fly home to Los Angeles right away. Something was wrong with her mom.
Mom had a straight shot to and from work – one road, no turns, 15 minutes. Somehow, mom got lost for two hours before finally finding her way home. Revere immediately took a 21-day leave from her job and flew to California.
When Revere arrived, she found her grandmother, who lived with her mom and was diagnosed with dementia in 2014, also hadn’t been cared for. “It was apparent she hadn’t bathed in months,”she said.
Revere’s 21-day work leave quickly turned permanent. She spent the next six years caring for her mother and grandmother – two dementia patients – at home, first without any pay and then for minimum wage for a certain number of hours per month through a California state home care program. Revere’s grandmother died November 6, 2017, and Revere continued to care for her mom until she passed in March 2022.
Revere still lives in that home where she took care of her grandmother and mother, but now, at 37 years old, she has almost no retirement savings. She earns money renting rooms to a revolving door of interns who work at a nearby engineering firm and from paid social media posts where she brings light to “invisible” caregivers. She pays for health insurance she gets through the state.
Revere’s…
