Prolife Profile

Tony Fulton was just 11 years old when he first lent a hand to an elderly neighbor.

He remembers the glint of the John F. Kennedy 50-cent piece he received in return for cleaning a bathroom, emptying the trash, washing dishes and shopping for groceries — not to mention the 35-cent pack of football cards he promptly purchased with his earnings.

Fulton's reputation quickly spread. By the time he finished high school, he was assisting elderly residents of his Nebraska hometown several times a week. Fifteen years later, Fulton, 31, continues to serve the aged as the founder and owner of Guardian Angels Homecare Inc., a Lincoln, Neb., company that provides nonmedical care for seniors to help them remain at home.

The company originated with a realization that God was calling Fulton — an engineer by trade — to do something more. “It became clear to me that I possess people skills that most engineers don't,” he explains. “It also became clear to me that I'm motivated by things that most people aren't. My Catholic faith burns in me.”

After much prayer and guidance from his wife and spiritual director, the father of four opened Guardian Angels Homecare. The company began taking clients June 1, 2003, and currently serves 35 seniors with 41 caregivers.

Using an extensive background check, Fulton hires caregivers to assist seniors with housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation and laundry. Help is also available for overnight stays. Although these tasks seem ordinary, Fulton said such assistance is vital for the physically, mentally or emotionally debilitated person.

“For someone who is 85 years old, if she's cleaning her home, cooking meals and so on, she's worn out and doesn't have time to be with her children,” Fulton says. “Or when her children come in to do that for her, her children are worn out, and they don't have time to be with Mom or Dad.”

Fulton believes the key for most seniors is maintaining independence. “If you talk to 100 seniors, I'd say 99 of them are going to say, ‘I don't want to go to a nursing home,’” he says. “This is a generation where owning a home is the American dream. These people have been in their homes for decades, 50 years some of them.”

Fulton notes that Guardian Angels Homecare Inc. is a member of The Senior's Choice, a national Nevada-based network of similar companion-care companies. To his knowledge, however, Guardian Angels is unique in its Catholic perspective.

“By expending our energies and ourselves in helping the elderly, we communicate to a secular culture that these individuals have an intrinsic dignity that we are willing to work toward, to preserve and to recognize,” Fulton says, adding that he considers his work a direct answer to Pope John Paul II's call to “put into the deep for a catch.”

“Don't hide from culture,” he says, paraphrasing the Pope. “Engage it, embrace it, love it for the sake of souls — for Jesus.”

The importance of Fulton's work recently struck Father Matthew Vandewalle, parochial vicar of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, as he took Communion to a parishioner recovering from a hip replacement. “I was bringing her the Eucharist,” the priest recalls, “and the Guardian Angels were bringing Christ in a different way through that service and companionship.”

The company name reflects this perspective, Fulton says. “That's what the guardian angels do for us: They help us on our path to heaven,” he adds. “They protect us from the wiles of the evil one. They protect us from spiritual harm if we're willing to listen.”

One of Fulton's greatest joys is watching similar relationships form between seniors and their caregivers. Take Megan Carter and her client, Barbara Boyer.

Since September, Carter has helped “Mrs. B” from 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. She prepares meals, washes clothes, assists with light housecleaning and reminds Mrs. Boyer to take her pills.

Best of all for Carter, it's not all give and no get. “I love to hear Mrs. Boyer tell stories,” she says. “It's like I'm the wide-eyed child waiting for the master storyteller to color my imagination with true, historical accounts. … She's a very classy lady who exemplifies what it is to grow old gracefully.”

Fulton says he makes an effort to pay a visit to each client monthly and, according to Father Vandewalle, Fulton has been known to personally cover for caregivers in the case of vacations or emergencies.

Such sacrifice seems to come naturally for Fulton, who has been serving the elderly since he was a child. After all, Fulton says, his primary goal in forming Guardian Angels Hom ecare was not to make money but to influence culture.

“I'm only 31, but in a couple of decades I'm going to stand before God and say, ‘This is what I did with my life,’” he says. “I hope it has an eternal impact.”

Kimberly Jansen writes from Lincoln, Nebraska.