“When you have seven kids and own a restaurant, you learn to do it all,” Betty said. She gave up the restaurant business to join VITAS. But her favorite parts of the two jobs remain the same. “Every day is different, and I love meeting all these people.”

The team also loves what Betty does when she “meets all these people.”

She not only gives patients and their families a non-threatening environment in which to talk (“People tell Betty things while she’s cleaning their toilet,” said Social Worker Kenda Russell). She cooks, cleans, mows lawns, and - yes - beats down wasp nests.

“There was one patient who had a wasp nest by her front door. Every week the wasps would build it back, and every week she wanted me to take it down,” Betty said. “So I’d beat at it and then high-tail it into the garage.”

Betty’s team also had a patient whose wife made peanut brittle every holiday season for the neighbors. But during one especially difficult year when cooking seemed out of the question, Betty made five batches of the peanut brittle for them herself.

Yes, every day is definitely different.