When you contact Always Good Company Home Care, chances are excellent that you'll talk to one of these amazing women, each of whom play an integral part in our daily operations.
Whether you're an AGC client or caregiver, you can rest assured that your needs are being handled with competence, efficiency, and professionalism.
From left to right:
Owner & Founder
Senior Care Coordinator
Care Coordinator
Katharine Hesmer
Marketing & Design
Amy Howell
Bookkeeper
Deb
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Deb takes pride in bringing joy to other people's lives.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Deb is kind and empathetic. She likes to help people.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Deb enjoys riding in her jeep with her dog Winston, and riding her horse, Charley.
Fun Fact: Deb says that her fun fact is that she is besotted with her animals. They make her very happy!
Debra
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Debra believes that caring for others is critically important to support social connection, health, and well being.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Compassion, commitment, and communication. Being a good listener is key.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Debra loves being outdoors, music venues, a good movie or show, reading, gardening, and cooking.
Fun Fact: Debra has 2 nieces who are so smart and kind. You should see them with a cell phone or a tablet- 2 techie experts! Debra says she is in awe!
Diane
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Diane has always wanted to be a nurse, and has been one for a long time. When the doctor she was working with retired, she felt it was time for a change. Diane heard through a friend about AGC and looked into it. She was not disappointed! Working for AGC allows Diane to still help people without the stress of the nurse's role.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Diane loves being able to do things for the people she cares for. She loves to bring her clients little things and make them smile or laugh. Diane gets very attached to people, and has a great deal of compassion for those in her care. When she looks at some of the sweet people she has cared for on this journey, she looks at their hands and thinks of the families they've raised, the work they've done, and the full, productive lives they've lived. She feels blessed to be able to continue what she loves doing by helping others at this point in her life.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Diane loves to read her Bible, sit by the ocean, be with her family, and attend her church.
Fun Fact: Diane is most proud of her son and daughter. Her son served in the marines for a long time ,and is now a Sergeant on the Bentonville, AR police department, raising his beautiful 16-year-old daughter. Diane's daughter has 2 children: her 18-year-old granddaughter and 7-year-old grandson. Diane is happiest when she can sleep in on any day of the week. She is also a fraternal twin!
Dottie
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Dottie is a very positive, upbeat person, and enjoys bringing joy to people's lives. Dottie loves helping others
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Dottie prides herself in being a compassionate, empathetic, engaging, and intuitive person, who understands the importance of also being a good listener.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
When Dottie isn't working, she enjoys cooking and entertaining friends and family, exercising at O2 Fitness, knitting, and spending time with her five-year-old grandson. .
Fun Fact: Dottie is a Wilmington native who left Wilmington in 1983 and returned in 2023. She has a group of eight friends who all went to kindergarten together here in town, and they still gather monthly. People are awestruck when they hear that, and it makes her very happy.
Jessica
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Jessica took care of her Grammy while she was still able to live independently in her own home. She really wants to help
others that may not have a family member to assist them.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Jessica prides herself on being easy to talk to, loves to help others, and is a hard worker. She's a mother, an animal lover and has an optimistic attitude.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Jessica enjoys spending time with her family, and being at the beach or on the water.
Fun Fact: Jessica has been told since she was a little girl that she would make a good nurse!
Kirsten
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
If ever there was an empath, it is Kirsten. Since childhood, she has always been keenly aware of other's feelings and emotions. Once Kirsten reached adulthood, she knew she wanted to carry that with her into her career.
Kirsten has worked in several fields of medicine, such as fertility and weight loss, which requires compassion, empathy, and an extraordinary ability to connect with people. From friends, to family, to clients, they will all tell you she is always there to give a good hug, share a laugh, or wipe away a tear. Her experiences with private caregiving in recent years has brought her joys and bonds like she had never experienced. She looks forward to giving back to those who have lived such full lives.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Kirsten is loving, compassionate, and a natural friend to all she comes across. She also works as a nutrition coach, and gets great joy from helping people reach goals and achieve better health and a greater quality of life.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
As an MN native, it is a big joy for Kirsten to be out of the sub-zero temps and near these beautiful beaches. She spends
as much time as possible outdoors, with her college-aged daughter and rambunctious new puppy. She's also an avid exercise enthusiast, and is both a student and certified teacher of Barre fitness.
Fun Fact:
Kirsten was the kid who always won the school Spelling Bee's, and has a strange ability to find errors in pretty
much any website or written material. It is both a blessing and a curse.
Another fun fact about Kirsten is that she cannot wink, despite her best efforts. So when you see her covering one eye with her hand and blinking
the other, she's not rehearsing her best pirate impression; she's just trying to wink at you! It is guaranteed to bring a smile, even if it looks silly.
Linda
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Linda was inspired as a young teen to be a caregiver.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Linda prides herself in her compassion for other people.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
When Linda isn't working, she enjoys going to church and spending time with her family and her dog.
Fun Fact: Linda often serves meals to and checks on some of her elderly neighbors who have no family.
Maria
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Maria took care of her father-in-law who had complications from diabetes. Helping him made her want to help other people who were in need.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Maria is extremely easy to talk to. She loves being around people, and takes pride in the work that she does. Helping others has made her a better person.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Maria is a wife, mother, and the mother of 3 dogs and a cat. Her daughter is an All-Star competitive cheerleader, and Maria is happiest when she's watching her and her team compete. Most of all, she's excited to watch her daughter grow into this amazing young lady. Maria also loves the beach, and enjoys reading.
Fun Fact: Richard Gere called Maria's house to wish her mom a happy birthday, and Maria answered the phone! She was also born on Friday the 13th.
Michelle
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Michelle grew up very close to her grandparents. She always enjoyed hearing their stories of “simpler times” and the history that they were a part of. Michelle enjoys learning from and listening to her clients (friends!) tell the stories of their lives.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver? As a speech pathologist, Michelle has worked with adults who have suffered strokes, dementia, and other brain injuries. Having patience, empathy and understanding is a quality needed in her profession. These qualities carryover to being a caregiver to her clients.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Now that she's empty nesting, she loves spending time with her husband and dogs on the boat. Getting to spend time with her two children is a bonus. She also enjoy sscrapbooking yearly memories.
Fun fact: For 12 years, Michelle owned her own business in speech pathology. She employed up to 10 therapists and serviced 4 counties.
Penny
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Penny is a busy bee! She is a full-time Assistant Kindergarten Teacher and Mother. But after her daughter went off to college, she decided to fill up her new free time with caregiving. She loves people and her love for people has no limits.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Penny is the definition of a people person. She lights up a room anywhere she goes and is the kind of person you want to have stay for dinner. An invite for Penny includes fun conversation and an ample amount of listening.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Penny loves to cook and clean! However, when the summer rolls around she takes advantage of her summer break with boating and fishing.
Fun Fact : When Penny moved to Wilmington at 28, she lived on a sailboat and raced it in Wrightsville Beach!
Scott
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Everybody needs help with a loved one from time to time. Scott's grandmother's late-in-life journey was was enhanced from the help and kindness of home health care professionals.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Kindness and empathy.
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Telling stories that bring laughter into a room.
Fun Fact: Scott is so proud of the fact that his children are kind, decent people.
Tammy
What inspired you to become a caregiver?
Tammy decided caregiving was for her after being a nanny and working in doctors’ offices. She loves helping people and found that one-on-one personal care was more her style, because she is able to personalize her caregiving.
What qualities do you possess that make you successful as a caregiver?
Throughout her rewarding 16 years caring for people, she has gained experience with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and hospice. Tammy enjoys getting to know each client so she can better care for each individual. This work is what she loves most and she will be a caregiver until she retires!
What are you happiest doing when not working?
Tammy enjoys roller coasters, jumping out of airplanes, vineyards, breweries, and visiting friends in upstate New York. Next on her bucket list is to see California’s beaches, take a cruise and visit Germany where she was born while her father was in the Army.
Fun Fact:
Tammy just purchased a riding lawn mower for her new yard, because “the pusher wasn’t cutting it” on a .74 acre lot during those 90-degree summer days! Her new house has inspired her creativity to make it her own. Tammy has plans to install hardwood floors, walk-in showers and vanities in all the bathrooms, and updating her kitchen cabinets.
