Tamara's Story

Imagine feeling isolated and alone, as though every fabric of the social safety net has torn away.  

This is how many Harbor Care clients feel, whether they’re people struggling to enter recovery, individuals living without shelter or medical care, or people homebound due to their age, a chronic health condition or a disability. 

This is also the situation Tamara Santana-Calderin found herself in when she relocated from Cuba to Nashua in 2010. Tamara is now a registered nurse (RN) at Harbor Care’s Healthy at Home program, which provides personal assistance and medical services to the homebound, but she came to the United States with little more than her family and a desire to help others.  

An engineering professor in her native country, Tamara struggled with everyday tasks in America, unable to communicate well and having never driven a car. Confined to areas within walking distance of her home, she began her new medical career at the local American Red Cross, where she took basic first aid and CPR classes.  

“It was only three blocks from where we lived,” she says, “I passed it every day and my husband saw the look in my eyes and asked: Why not?” 

Yes, why not? Tamara makes the connection between teaching and nursing by saying, “In Cuba, through my teaching, I connected with students, and today I connect with patients ... In a way, I’m still opening up doors for people.”  

The long journey from a new American to registered nurse would not have been possible without grit, determination, and the opportunities presented by Healthy at Home. Tamara interviewed with Healthy at Home’s Jalene Prosser after completing certifications at the Red Cross and was hired as a Personal Care Services Provider that very day. 

For a woman who had already taken a step across national borders -- and struggled with a foreign language and unfamiliar culture, teaching herself one word at a time at the public library -- this was the foot in the door she needed to realize new dreams for herself. Because Healthy at Home staffs its program to provide home care assistance up to full 24/7 nursing care, someone like Tamara can rise through positions as they gain life experiences and return to college as adult learners.   

“This was my first job in America and I feel so lucky to have found Healthy at Home,” she says.  

Tamara has been with the program 14 years and risen through various positions, eventually passing the state’s RN licensing requirements. “I have never been happier,” she says. “I get to connect to patients every day in a way that very few people can, in their very homes.” 

For Tamara, this involvement is personal and intimate. “I become part of a family’s support system, almost a part of the family itself,” she says, adding that the work requires careful and compassionate listening on her part.  

Helping patients and their families understand medications and their health conditions is only part of the work for Tamara, however, because of the trusting relationship Healthy at Home staff have with patients and their families, there are more opportunities to connect them to other treatment options, too. When you spend months (sometimes years) with people, they open up in a way that’s not always possible during a 30-minute visit to a primary care doctor or a five-minute visit to an emergency room.      

 “I love my patients,” Tamara says. “I want them to know that I want to be their friend, too, and I want them to understand the ‘why’ behind everything.”  

That intimacy is bittersweet sometimes. Because Healthy at Home cares for those who have few other resources, particularly those with chronic health conditions, sometimes Tamara is the last and most important person patients meet in this world.  

“I get notes from their families years after someone has passed,” she says. “They tell me: ‘Tamara, he loved you so much!’ Or they just thank me for being there at the end.”     

Living at home can be difficult for those struggling with a disability, chronic illness, or a period of recovery. For more than 20 years, Harbor Care’s Healthy at Home has provided affordable, high-quality home health and personal care, so that people may remain independent and in their homes. To schedule a confidential, no-obligation consultation, please call (603) 595-4243