Rosalind Marshall Jones 9/2/25 (This interview has been edited and condensed for length)

Zack: Thank you for being here, Roz. We are honored. So tell us a little bit about your caregiver journey. We understand that it's unique.

Roz: My caregiver journey started. I had no plans on being a caregiver, Honey, trust and believe, none whatsoever. And so I happened to be at church, and one of the ladies at the church was a widow, had no children, but was going into surgery. She was supposed to have part of her intestine removed, which she did. However, you know, when they say, the surgery's only gonna be about an hour, it turned into two hours, three hours, four hours.  And they had not only to remove part of her intestine, small intestine, but also a large intestine.

 As they were doing that, they came out and said, “Hey, you know, we're having a problem here and we're going to have to do some emergency surgery.” I said, “Hey, I'm not the power of attorney. I don't have any permissions, but whatever the hospital protocol is, please follow it because I have no say-so at all in her care.”

 Needless to say, she came out, she was in the hospital for two weeks. I was there every day. So from the hospital to rehab all the way through. As I was taking care of her, the people at the hospital said, “Oh, you need to be a caregiver or a nurse.” I said, “You bumped your head.” I was working for Blue Cross and Blue Shield at the time, making very, very, good money as a technical writer... So I was happy as a hog, trust me, and I was not planning on doing it. I said, well, for kicks and giggles, I'll go down here to the sitting facility and see how much they were paying. Well, at that time, they were paying $8.25 an hour. 

I wouldn't even put my key in the ignition for $8.25 an hour. So in order for me to keep helping her, I said, Let me get trained as a CNA. So I went on and got my CNA license… it put me in a better position to get more pay… anyway, I got into it and fell in love with it. And I'm able to tell this lady's story because she has allowed me… she passed about two years ago… And what was so good about it was because I was already working at Blue Cross, I was able to then say, Hey, I could fight for her rights… And then from there, I picked up some more private duty jobs because people saw me. I worked for one lady, and she said, “You know what, you're one of Jacksonville's best caregivers.” That's how I got the business name.

Selma: So you started caregiving by helping a woman at church who was having surgery? Were you close to the lady, or was she just a church member?

Roz: You know, we would take them food during the week… I only saw her on Sundays and maybe once every other week when we would deliver food… And she chose me out of everybody in the church to go with her to the hospital.

Selma:  So when you started your care journey, were you working another job? How did you balance the two?

Roz: I was working another job. And so when I started picking up the sitting part, it was only for the weekends… like Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You know, like overnight or during the day. I could do it because it was either after church or before church, after work, before work. So I was able to balance that. But you have to be a special person to be able to take care of someone who's sick… And I've told people, if someone asks you to be a caregiver and honestly you can't do it, please say no. 

Zack: I understand you're doing it before church after church, working your job at Blue Cross Blue Shield, but… so many people only have so much time and energy. People have jobs like full-time jobs, and they have to care for somebody who is sick. What advice are you giving people like that?

Roz: I tell people, if you are a family member and you're getting ready to take care of somebody that you love, let them know I'm not going to quit my full-time job to take care of you. You have to be honest. You have to call a pig, pork, and an elephant heavy. And the reason why I say you have to be so blunt is because they think, I took care of you when you were little, and I sacrificed. Taking care of someone back in 1964 and taking care of someone in 2025 is totally different… in order for people to understand that, I try to explain to them that, back in the day, we were only one person working.

Now you’ve got two people working most of the time. And so that means we need two incomes to take care of this house. So that means that I'm not gonna be home taking care of you. So either we're gonna get a caregiver to come in and take care of you, number one, or we're going to have to put you in a facility where you may need more care than I can give you… But know that I'm not going to take my whole day, take off from work, and take care of you. Even if I work from home, I can't take care of you.

… I have a dear friend from church. She brought her mother in from Dallas, and it was a “Come to Jesus” meeting. I said this is what she's going to do. On the door she's going to put on here, I'm working from eight to five. These are my breaks. And that's when you can talk to her during these break times.

Selma:  So you talked to your friend’s mother instead of your friend talking to her?

Roz:  Because it's easier coming from a third party than from your child.  And I said, so she's working. So when you get to hollering her name, they can hear that all on the telephone, sweet baby. So you can't do that….

Zack: What advice would you give to families about caregiving and about trying to find someone like you? It's not easy to do that.

Roz:  … the advice is that if you have them come into your house, we have rules and regulations that you gotta follow. You're not coming here for free. We're gonna pay rent, we're gonna sign a lease. I mean, you just have to be honest with them…. If you want to find somebody like me, that's going to be honest, word of mouth. I always tell people, when you're hiring a caregiver, don't hire one person. Hire two or three because one of those people is going to get sick this week… These are the things that you have to understand when you hire caregivers… So you interview them. You don't always take the first one. You interview through word of mouth. Go out there on Caring.com. Because they already have the ratings. They do the background check.  You know, they have these different companies that you can use that already do the pre-work for you… All that stuff is already done.

Zack:  Every state is different. I'm just curious, what is your opinion on hiring somebody through an agency versus hiring somebody privately?

Roz: The benefit of hiring through an agency is that if that person calls out sick, the agency usually can get you a backup real quick. If you hire privately… when that person calls out, guess who's gonna be the fill-in? It's gonna be Zack or Selma gonna have to fill in… You can go to your job and say, Hey, I had this situation at home. Can I do hybrid? Can I work like two days at work on Monday and Friday, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, work from home? You can do a hybrid. A lot of jobs are doing that now, since COVID, because they know they have to…

Selma: What you’re saying is that as a caregiver, you step up and make some things happen. Talk to your employer, and come up with some ideas about how to make your situation work.

Roz:  Absolutely. A lot of employers are flexible….there are companies out there that do virtual work. There are like five different apps out there where you can go and find virtual work… sometimes pay better than going in.

Selma:  So you said you help caregivers, like your girlfriend flew her mom in from Texas, and you talked to her. What keeps you motivated and inspired to do that?

Roz:  The biggest thing that keeps me motivated…at the end of the day, most of the time when people just say, thank you, or their family says, I appreciate what you're doing for mom because  I can't do this at home. I don't have the strength. I get full when I say it because I've been doing it so long. And sometimes those two simple words, thank you, can melt you…

So not everybody is fit to do this. Eventually, the work, the accountability is too high, and their standards are too low. Our accountability is high. We raised the bar… When you raise the bar… that means most of the time they'll exit naturally. Some of them need assistance, but most of the time, naturally, they'll get out of their business.

Selma:  So just because a person cares doesn't mean they're a caregiver.

Roz: Just because a person cares doesn't mean they're a caregiver…

Zack:  I bet when families find you, they're like, it's the second coming. Hallelujah! We have found the best caregiver in the world. You told us why you named it that. I love that story. But tell us exactly what Jacksonville’s Best Caregivers do and why?

Roz:  Well, Jacksonville's Best Caregivers provides four levels of service: sitter, homemaker, companion, home health aide, and certified nursing assistant. And my motto is when you can't do it all, you give Roz Jones a call.

I niched down. At first, I was taking care of everybody. Then I niched down and it kind of fell naturally into Alzheimer's. So all my care has been Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's. And recently I've gotten more frontal lobe dementia for some odd reason. A few years ago, it was really rare… But now I'm seeing so many people with this disease, and I don't know if it comes from stress…

Zack:  For our readers, could you just tell us briefly what the differences are between frontal lobe dementia and Alzheimer's in your experience?

Roz:  The frontal lobe, when it attacks the front part of the brain, they're not able to eat. You have the system with feeding, toileting, and walking. Now, when they first get it, they're still functional, but they're very forgetful. It has some of the same symptoms as everything else. And I see that they live a long time…

Zack:  You have some very difficult experiences. Research is showing that caregivers of family members who have cognitive impairment issues suffer the most. How do you do it? How do you train your team to do it?  What do you feel is the secret sauce that makes you so different from other agencies that work with families like that?

Roz:  My faith, my walk with God. They see it when I walk in. I'm not braggadocious about what I do. I come in and assess, and I say, You can use me, or I have a list of 10 agencies that you could use. And I let them know this may be a good fit, this may not be a good fit… There are some things we can do, some things we can't do. And I'm honest. But my reputation has been built on my faith walk.

Zack:  Well, it's also built on content. You write a lot. Can you tell us a bit about this caregiver cafe? And when do you have time to write?

Roz:  I took a little hiatus, and as a matter of fact, I'm glad you said it because we're getting ready to strike back up the blog and the podcast… I was writing my blogs every day. I would write 30 days in advance based on a theme…. I build my blogs around that theme. Like, for instance, we know that breast cancer awareness is coming up in October. So I do the stuff on breast cancer awareness… I look at all of that and then that's my theme for the month… my newsletter is the same way… When I do the podcast, it'll also be with the podcast.

Zack: You do newsletters, how often? 

Roz:  I was doing newsletters twice a week. I'm going to pick that back up on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

  Zack:  If you were to go back and be a caregiver, is there anything you would tell yourself in the beginning of that journey?

Roz:  Make sure you can do it. Because let me tell you something, if you're miserable taking care of someone, that person is going to suffer. It's going to exacerbate their disease. Say for instance, just like with my mother, I'm going to use my mother as an example. My father had all kinds of things coming back from Vietnam. PTSD, he had Agent Orange, he had all of this. And as I talked to doctors about this, they said that could have been part of the reason that caused her to have Alzheimer's because of so much stress from my dad… So if you know in your heart that you can't do it, I’d rather for you to say no and take them to Shady Pines, just like on the Golden Girls… pass them on to another relative or take them to a facility…

Zack:  I love you Roz!

Roz:  I love you like a hog loves slop, you know that, right?

Roz:  … The Bible says you have to honor that mother and that father. It says honor. It didn't say anything about having to take care of you. Ooh, that's deep, ain't it? …

Zack:  But caring for your parent doesn't necessarily have to be the hands-on stuff, right? Like you said, I mean, if you're not prepared financially. 

Roz:  It could be long-distance. You could send the money for groceries. Send money for the caregiver. Send money to get the house clean. Send money to pay a caregiver to give the person who's taking care respite… You're not going to go to hell if you don't take care of your parents. The Bible says respect them…

Zack and Selma:  Thank you so much, Roz, for your awesome words of wisdom.