Tracings Some Boston home baking and a little TLC

By Olivia Tracey

Wandering around Boston for 10 days recently, I was not surprised to bump into an Irish person or two. However, what I didn’t expect was to end up in one of their friend’s homes a few nights later, being treated like lady of the manor over a sumptuous four-course dinner, with people I had never met before in my life.

It all began at the New England auto convention with a certain Westmeath lass, Teresa Mangan, who remembered me from my Miss Ireland days back in the old country. So we girls chatted while her poor Donegal boyfriend, Sheamus McCarron, could hardly get a word in edgewise. Anyway, we exchanged numbers, and as word somehow got around that yours truly was in town, I ended up with the delightful couple at their equally delightful friends’ home in Watertown, feeling very much the guest of honor.

My hosts were Julieanne and David McGimpsey, from Carlow and Belfast, respectively. Their hospitality was indeed a breath of fresh air and Irish to the core. The party of course began in the kitchen, where I was introduced to the invited guests, David’s partner, Hugh Redmond, from Dublin, and the token American, Jon Levens. In the process, however, I managed to spill half of my rosé on the kitchen floor, which, just for the record, was my first glass of the evening. I took a little slagging from the boys as I mopped it up like any honest-to-God Irish woman, knowing there and then that I was in for a grand ol’ time.

My host David, being Northern Irish and unacquainted with RTE programming, was killed being polite, asking me about myself and no doubt trying to figure out who in God’s name was this supposed somebody causing so much fuss in his home.

Indeed, he did most of the cooking, and did it extremely well. Of course, being a baker, he’s no stranger to culinary pastimes and enjoys, along with his partner and their Breadsmith Company, widespread notoriety for baking "the best bread in Boston." They even gave me a loaf to take home.

In the meantime, however, we gathered in the candlelit dining-room, complete with cardinal red table cloth and matching napkins, savoring every bite of the delicious home-cooked meal and exchanging a string of funny stories from our most embarrassing moments to our greener-than-grass arrivals on U.S. soil.

Particularly engaging was Teresa’s success story. She, together with her friend Julieanne, employs more than 70 people (all of whom are Irish, save three Americans) in her home health care agency: Tender Loving Care.

Having trained as a nurse at Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Hospital followed by work as a registered nurse in St. James’s Hospital, Teresa moved to Boston in January 1992. She arrived in a snowstorm, knowing only two brothers from her local village who very kindly accommodated her. She was also armed with her much-treasured Donnelly Visa and eager to maker her American dream come true.

However, her quest was not without its nightmares. Discovering to her dismay that her nursing degree was not valid in the United States without taking the American Nursing State Boards exams, she resorted to various housekeeping and hostessing jobs before finally entering the private home health care sector. Interviewed over the phone by an agency, she found herself the very next day hired and beginning work as a live-in companion to an elderly patient. She was given very little information regarding the patient.

Lo and behold, a month later when she was due her salary, she found that the agency had vanished along with her wages and fees. Subsequently working with various agencies some of whom didn’t even ask her for a resume, she became disheartened with the standard of home health care and so decided to establish her own agency.

She gave up her job as a home-care provider and lived on her personal savings while setting up the business. Next, she applied for her state license, which involved attending a closed court tribunal where her personal records were scrutinized and her references checked to ensure she was of good character. Then she set about recruiting home health care providers, thoroughly interviewing and investigating them to ensure that they were compassionate, gentle, perceptive, responsible, mature, dedicated, knowledgeable and well trained. Her guideline was to ask herself if she would send them to look after her own parents. Finally, she organized her stationery and advertised for clients, putting out word to everyone from hospitals and nursing homes to social workers and pharmacies. By May 1994, Tender Loving Care was open for business.

Now, more than five years later, her love for and dedication to what she does is truly paying off. She continues to meet personally with every new client to ensure that she finds the most suitable home-care provider for their needs. She has also surrounded herself with a first-rate support team, including her accountant, William Hearn, her office manager and friend Julieanne, and no fewer than all three Mary Flaherty’s who work for her as secretaries and home health aides.

Her belief that the warm touch of a care-giver is the single most important ingredient in patient care has earned her a superlative reputation that keeps Tender Loving Care growing at a very healthy pace indeed. For more information, call Teresa or Julieanne at (617) 923-2462.