Thriving at home

As much as Mother Bass disagreed with her doctor’s call for nursing-home placement, her daughter protested even more vehemently. “It’s like they were saying she should just give up on herself,” Jean West said.

When her mother had a stroke in 2000, West left her New Jersey home and moved to Roanoke, buying a house a few minutes away. Her sisters live out of state.

“You can’t take care of somebody over the phone,” West said. “Anybody who’s been as good a mother as she has been, she deserves to stay in her home.”

Cheryl Jones waits for client Margaret Bass to make her way to a van for a church-related trip to Richmond.

But West says she couldn’t do it without the help of Jones, who takes care of her mother 12 hours a week as an employee of Family Service of Roanoke Valley, the only nonprofit home-care agency in Roanoke. Jones is paid by state-federal dollars via LOA, the United Way of Roanoke Valley and the city of Roanoke. Current funding allows the program to serve just 53 area seniors.

West tries to check up on her mother during her lunch hour and after work, but “without Cheryl it would be difficult; I’d have to work out a whole new strategy.”

Whereas West tends to give in to her mother’s every request, Jones knows that it’s better for Mother Bass’ fine motor skills if she has to reach down and put her shoes on herself.

Jones tied a basket onto Mother Bass’ walker so she could carry her cordless phone, her glasses and her bills from room to room. In January, after Jones had surgery on both of her feet, she sat on a stool in her own kitchen and cooked for Mother Bass, dispatching her children to deliver the food.

On doctor-ordered medical leave at the time, Jones knew that Mother Bass ate best when she had pinto beans and corn bread in front of her and didn’t have to rely solely on Meals on Wheels.

“Some people live a lifetime and don’t know why they were born, but Cheryl has a gift, and it blesses me,” West said.

Mother Bass has thrived under Jones’ care. She even travels, with the help of elders from her church, to statewide church meetings.

Had she gone to a nursing home when her doctor told her to, Jones asserts, “She would’ve given up by now. More than likely, she’d be dead.”

In fact, on her good days, Mother Bass still delivers the Sunday sermons at her church. It’s called Glorious Church of God in Christ No. 2, and it’s where, decades ago, she first laid eyes on a baby named Cheryl Jones.