Family Shepherd Case Study - Betty Z.

Location: Prairie Village, KS 

Some of our trusted Resource Partners that collaborated to help this family include:

Placement Agent

Senior Living - The Forum Independent Living

Furniture Repurposing Organization

Packing & organizing

Two moving Companies

Elder Law Attorney

Veteran Services

Protecting Seniors - Our Why

Family Shepherd understands the challenges and stress that go along with transitioning a loved one into Senior Living. With an empathetic approach, we help families by providing them with trusted resources when they are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. We help make the process of moving your loved one safely into senior living a smooth, less stressful, and less time consuming process. By connecting seniors and their families with contacts and resources that we know and trust, they are less likely to be taken advantage of and more likely to experience a positive transition. 

The most valuable asset that many seniors have is their house. However, the most significant barrier to selling a house is the work needed to make it market ready. Making repairs, cleaning it up, clearing it out, or undertaking an expensive home rehab project takes so much time, money, energy, and overall stress on the senior and their family. We work with them to purchase the house in any condition. This frees up the time, energy, and money needed for the senior to make the move to senior living and get the care that they need.

“This is all about introducing families to people and resource partners that I know, like, and trust. People who have the same integrity that I have.” said Ben Rao, Founder of Family Shepherd. 

The Background

Betty and her husband, Jack, an Army veteran, lived in their beloved home for 52 years. Her husband has passed away and the home they built together had become harder and harder for Betty to manage alone.  More than a year after his death, there were rooms full of belongings Betty hadn’t seen or gone through.  The house needed tens of thousands of dollars in repairs, which Betty was physically and financially unable to do.  And while her adult son, also a military veteran,  who suffered from PTSD and physical health challenges, lived with her. He was also unable to keep up with the home repairs and relied on Betty to keep a roof over his head.

Betty’s own health was declining and she recognized the need to move to Senior Living. But,  where would she begin?  Betty has two dear friends, Lynne and Colleen, that she heavily relies on for help. The three friends attended church together where they met and developed a close bond.  Betty even worked as a housekeeper for Lynne for years.  Acknowledging their good friend needed help, Lynne and Colleen agreed to assist with this transition. Neither of them knew what to do either, so they reached out to a local senior placement agency serving Overland Park and Kansas City, KS to help find the right community for Betty. They knew that they needed more help- specifically with the house.  After understanding what they needed, the placement agency referred them to Family Shepherd to help with Betty’s house.

The House Is Just The Beginning

Family Shepherd offers an empathetic and holistic approach to assisting families during one of the most difficult transitions they will ever face. When your loved one needs around the clock care, the costs can seem overwhelming. Oftentimes, the house is the largest asset, but may need updated or to have repairs made, both of which take time and money to manage.

Families are faced with making big decisions about senior care and how to pay for it. This is where Family Shepherd can help. Knowing that the house is often the biggest asset, we work on the senior’s timeline to ensure that they can tap into the equity in their home to free up funds for the senior’s long-term care. We will purchase the home, in any condition, in as little as ten days. 

The house is just the beginning. We work with both seniors and their families to ensure they are taken care of and surround them with local, trusted resources to support them every step of the way. We also know that the stuff in the house is often as much of a stressor as the house itself. We encourage senior families to take anything they want to keep or sell from the house, and we will take care of the rest, easing the work, hassle, and stress for the entire family.

An Empathetic Approach During A Time Of Transition

After 52 years, Betty and her husband had accumulated a lifetime’s worth of belongings and memories. Betty’s husband was an avid collector.  He enjoyed collecting items that he would sell in garage sales. Their large home was filled with furniture and an assembly of music and artwork intended for sale.  Almost every room in the house was filled with belongings. There were some rooms that Betty hadn’t looked in since her husband passed. It was too overwhelming for her.  The home also had a lengthy list of expensive repairs and work that needed to be done. It would take over $100,000 and foundation work and repairs just to list the home for sale. That was not feasible for Betty. She needed a solution to allow her to step into her next chapter as quickly and easily as possible. She was ready.

Betty knew what items that she wanted to take with her to her new home. However, this left the rest of the couple’s belongings. Lynne and Colleen were tasked with sorting and cataloging all of the remaining items in the house in preparation for donating, repurposing, or selling the items that the couple had collected. That task was immense, overwhelming, and time-consuming. They needed help. With Family Shepherd’s help, this task was accomplished in no time and most of the furniture from Betty’s home was able to be repurposed for Kansas City families in need through our partnership with Flourish Furniture. 

Family Shepherd is empathetic to families who are transitioning to senior living. A lot of people look at the contents of a house and think that it is just filled with a bunch of stuff. It is not usually that straightforward. Most homes have their fair share of ‘stuff’, but they also have a lifetime of belongings that have special meaning and memories attached to them. “We empathize with families trying to decide what to take to senior living and what to leave behind. We know that this can be very difficult. Once the family has removed the items they want from the house, we take care of everything, from furniture to clothes to knick-knacks. We work to be environmentally and socially conscious regarding the ‘stuff’.  If it cannot be sold to fund the Senior’s care, we donate or recycle these items through partnerships with local Kansas City organizations who put them to good use.“ said Ben. “And the seniors take comfort in knowing their belongings are going to loving homes. It helps the transition when they see how much their things will be loved by others.”

(Insert photo and story of Strawberry).

While working with Betty, she enjoyed talking about her love for cooking and shared many stories and memories of entertaining in the home the couple shared for 52 years. To help her retain some of these memories, Lynne and Colleen made a cookbook with all of Betty’s most famous recipes.  Even though the house is sold and all of the remaining ‘stuff’ has been repurposed, Family Shepherd is still connecting with Betty and visiting with her occasionally. Though Family Shepherd has already purchased the house and settled Betty into her new home at The Forum, we are still working with Betty to record her telling her many stories through our Senior Stories video documentary efforts. Documenting the lives of seniors that we work with, ensuring that they are able to share their life experiences, has become a passion project for Family Shepherd. Every senior has a story worth sharing, and Family Shepherd will work with any senior that wants to share their stories.

Shepherding Families Through Tough Times

While Family Shepherd was working with Betty, she suffered a hospitalization and had to spend  some time in short-term rehab.  With her health declining, Ben felt even more compelled to find ways to help Betty and ease the burden of dealing with the house and her upcoming move to senior living. 

Ben visited Betty in rehab, took her treats, and kept her spirits high. He also met with Lynne and advised her on much-needed resources, such as movers and attorneys, that they could trust. 

Ben also kept the closing date on the home flexible. This allowed Betty and her son to operate on a timeline they were comfortable with without sacrificing the purchase price of the home.   Ben knew that the deposit for Betty’s new home at The Forum would be due before she was ready to close on the house. Knowing how important it was to Betty that she would be able to move in as planned, Family Shepherd made the community fee and deposit for Betty, extending her an advance on the sale of her home. Thanks to Family Shepherd’s commitment to buying her house “as is”, willingness to be flexible with the timeline, and finding a creative solution when the deposit came due, Betty had the money she needed to afford the down payment to secure the room that she wanted. 

And what about Betty’s son? As a military veteran suffering from crippling PTSD and physical health challenges, life has been hard for him. He’d been living in Betty’s finished garage and would be displaced when she moved.  He was not in a position to support her financially or help care for her or the home. Ben knew this was a huge stressor for Betty, so he spent time with her son, understanding his needs and talking with Veteran resources throughout Kansas City.  In partnership with Betty, her son, and area Veteran support organizations, like Veterans Community Project, they found a solution and resources that everyone felt good about and moved him close to securing a place for him to live.

The best part? Family Shepherd’s services cost Betty nothing. 

Staying connected with the family after the senior has transitioned out of their home is one of the joys that we experience when working with families. At Family Shepherd, the house is just the beginning. We connect with seniors, and their family, on many levels. Betty and Ben have big plans to do some cooking in Laura's Kitchen in the upcoming months,  Betty promised Ben that he would make her her famous 14-karat cake. Over the course of the time that we work with a family, real and true bonds are formed. We love the seniors that we work with and we enjoy going above and beyond to make sure that we serve them the best that we can while going through the process of buying their house. Ben, who has bonded with Betty over their love of cooking, and maintains a close relationship with her, plans to be right by Betty's side while she teaches him all of her secret recipes from her book. 

Connecting Families With Trusted Resources

Family Shepherd’s empathetic and understanding approach allows them to meet with families and determine what they need, in what timeframe, and address the challenges they are facing. 

Ben works to connect families with much-needed resources for legal, down-sizing, placement, auctioning items online, resources for estate sales, helping manage possessions, providing resources for reliable moving companies, home maintenance, and  so much more. At Family Shepherd, the house is just the beginning. 

Ben Rao is a Senior Care Advocate and Founder of Family Shepherd. He’s passionate about helping families navigate this often overwhelming process. Family Shepherd’s mission is to get the family in a better place while helping seniors preserve their dignity during one of life’s most challenging times.