When George Arab’s mother grew older and had to be placed in a nursing home, he never got the chance to visit her.
Arab, a Rutland resident with 25 years of experience in the healthcare information technology industry, had purchased a pizzeria in 2020. With work occupying him, he did not have time to visit his ailing mother at a nursing home in Lebanon. His mother, Dolly, died in 2021.
A feeling of loneliness lingered inside Arab. His father died when Arab was just 12 years old and his aunt, who was also placed in a nursing home, had passed away in 2020.
“I felt like I was left alone in this world,” Arab said.
While working at the pizzeria, Arab was constantly reminded of his mother as he heard stories from seniors who were in distress.
“There were many short stories. Like a senior whose wife died and his kids are in a different area,” Arab said. “Ended up on his own with his dog roaming the streets.”
Moved by these stories, as well as his own experience with his mother, Arab made the decision to move on from the pizzeria and IT businesses so that he could help seniors as a franchisee for Seniors Helping Seniors.
Seniors Helping Seniors is a caregiving service program that matches older adults with seniors who need care, according to the organization website. The organization has franchises in the Greater Boston area. Arab’s franchise will be located in Worcester and will be the first Central Mass. franchise for the organization.
The Central Massachusetts franchise will serve seniors in Worcester, Shrewsbury, Northborough, Boylston, West Boylston and other surrounding areas, according to Arab. He hopes the franchise will be operational by late July or early August.
As the franchisee, Arab will be responsible for overseeing the caregivers he hires. He will also be responsible for matching caregivers with compatible seniors.
“If the caregiver is allergic to cats and the senior has cats then obviously you would find another caregiver who would match,” Arab said. “My job would be to make sure all of that is put together nicely.”
Arab will utilize the 25 years of knowledge and skills he has acquired in the healthcare IT industry to ensure operations run smoothly at his franchise.
When he began work as an IT professional at the University of Buffalo’s School of Medicine in 1998, Arab helped create data systems for doctors. The doctors used the systems to determine whether their patients had taken certain medications, had specific diagnoses or had certain problems, Arab said. Through this work, Arab found fulfillment as he was able to help patients indirectly.
“Being so far away from my parents, it felt like I was connected to something,” Arab said.
In 2007, Arab moved to Massachusetts after taking an IT job at UMass Memorial Health. In 2020, Arab bought the pizzeria.
At first, he thought that he could continue his work in IT, now as a consultant, while his wife worked in the shop.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, however, Arab had to focus more of his efforts on the pizzeria and moved away from his time in healthcare IT.
In the next two years, he had to place both his aunt and his mother in nursing homes in Lebanon, where they both lived. Arab immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1984 to find more opportunities for himself in an attempt to escape the chaos of the ongoing Lebanese civil war.
Following his mother’s death, Arab had heard more stories at the pizzeria from seniors who received little care. These stores opened deep wounds for Arab — wounds that he felt when he had to place his loved ones in nursing care.
“I don’t want to sit back and watch,” he said, ”I want to do something to help, and the restaurant is bogging me down. The Seniors Helping Seniors franchise allows me to do that, to give people the dignity they deserve and their independence.”
With his new job approaching, Arab said that he hopes to give seniors the dignity they deserve — just as his mother deserved when she was in a nursing home.
“Caregivers are often volunteers,” Arab said. “If you have that mentality in your mind, then you have that calling that I have.”
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