Connecting The Dots
- neale13
- Nov 12
- 3 min read
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."
Steve Jobs
In the frigid cold days of a Canadian winter, an 81-year old lady shuffled around her small apartment in Montreal. She was weak, frail, alone, and comforted only by her pet poodle. The lower Westmount rooming house where she lived was quickly catching on to her neglected affairs. With no family to attend to her, she had become incontinent, unable to perform basic hygiene...and the stench carried into the common areas. The tenants complained. The house manager ordered her to leave. The woman was distraught.
Meanwhile, a 20-year old Dawson College student down the hallway had been bedridden with an illness for 6 weeks and recovering. Weak and frail herself, she heard of the elderly lady's plight and reached out to help. Within a matter of weeks, the old woman was bathed and cleaned. Her apartment was tidied up and organized, and against great odds, the student was able to locate another place to live for her. Mustering her own newfound strength in recovery, the student packed up the elderly lady's apartment, moved her into her new home, unpacked her things and assisted her with settling into her new place...
Ann Neale, Owner and Founder of Ann's Guardian Angels, Inc, is fond of a Steve Jobs quote that says, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." Started in 2007, Ann's Guardian Angels provides caregivers for elderly and children throughout Cape Cod, Boston and Southeastern MA as well as Rhode Island. Hundreds of seniors have been lovingly assisted in their homes with compassion and dignity, earning Ann’s Guardian Angels a reputation of tailored service that connects its dots back to 1981 in that small rooming house in Montreal. Ann was an intern with Ville Marie Social Services and a social work student at Dawson College, when she heard news of the old woman's condition. You might think the elderly 81-year old's story ended with her new place to live but within 2 days, she had been ordered to leave yet again.
Ann did not give up.
She went back and repeated the move all over again. She found another place for the elderly lady to live, packed her up and moved her for the second time. Then she stayed a constant in the woman's life with regular visits.
That's Ann Neale.
Stories of sacrifice behind the mission of caregiving are common and easily overlooked but for Ann, serving others is not just a business, it's a calling. If you have a loved one in need, call Ann at (508) 782-8682. Ann's Guardian Angels: Compassionate Caregiving from the Heart. We would love to meet your loved ones wherever they call home.
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*Story above retold from Ann Neale and article from The Montreal Gazette, January 19, 1981. Click here for orignal newspaper story.