For the elders of the colony
Emperor penguins stay
with the colony all their lives.
A rookery is where they raise their young, and where they grow old. The same is true here: the record that runs a household raising a child runs a household caring for a parent.
The day, written down
Eight hours of her day happen
while you are at work.
The aide writes it as it happens: one tap, a sentence. By evening the day is a page, not a guess.
Lunch. Most of the soup, all of the bread.
Written at 12:20 pm
Morning medications, taken at 8:05.
Written at 8:06 am
Walked to the mailbox and back. Slow, but she wanted to.
Written at 3:40 pm
Her sister called. Bright all afternoon after that.
Written at 4:15 pm
The handover
Nothing gets lost
between aides.
Home care changes shifts more often than child care does. Each aide reads what the last one left, and leaves a note for the next. The family reads the same page everyone else does.
ROSA, OFF AT 2
Good morning. Ate well. The knee is stiff today, she used the chair lift without arguing.
Left 1:55 pm
DAVID, ON AT 2
Read it. We will skip the garden today and do the puzzle instead.
Read 2:02 pm
The small hours
Somebody left a light on.
The hard nights come with this season of life. At 3am the record is still there: what she ate, when she slept, which aide was in the house, and an emergency card that opens with no signal and no sign-in. The numbers, the address, what responders will ask.
The door
Every aide gets their own key.
None of them gets the house code.
Door codes are made per person, for their shift, and stop working when they do. When an agency rotates staff, the code rotates itself. Every use is written down, and the family and the aide can both read the log.
Both sides
The aide's record
is the aide's.
Hours that never surprise anyone at the end of the month. A record of good work that travels with them to the next family. An aide never pays to work, and safety is never paywalled. The household holds the record: no ads, no data resale, ever.
Care, in this house, looks like company.
Caring for a parent at home?
We are building this with families who live it. If that is your house, we would like to hear what the record must hold.
hello@rookery.haus