January 2025 Angel of the Month | Olasumbo Oyigbo
With the new year comes a new Angel of the Month. We are thrilled to name Olasumbo Oyigbo our first Angel of the Month for 2025! Lovingly called “Sumba” for short, she joined the Visiting Angels Newton/Canton team in May 2023 and has cared for 11 different clients with an energy and enthusiasm all her own. For Sumba, it all comes back to caring for clients exactly how she’d care for her own family, which is something she learned to do from a very early age as the oldest of her brothers and sisters.“I was always taking care of a family member,” Sumba said. “It’s how I grew up. So, it’s always helpful to think of the client as family. When you look at them through that lens, compassion comes naturally.”
Sumba’s experience tending to her family is ultimately what inspired her to become a CNA in 2006. Soon after, she began working at assisted living facilities close to home, gaining valuable experience caring for seniors with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. She found herself forming meaningful relationships with a lot of the residents, just by accompanying them to different events and engaging them in a host of activities, whether it be a simple craft or preparing a meal.
After a while, Sumba opted to change gears a bit, taking her skills as a nursing assistant to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton. Even though it was a much more fast-paced environment, she found herself employing the same love and compassion that had served her so well.
“Wherever I am, whoever I’m with, whether it’s a patient or a client, I always lead with compassion and go at their pace, not my own,” Sumba explained.
After six years at St. E’s, Sumba started looking for work at night and on weekends to fill the time she wasn’t working at the hospital. A friend who was working for Visiting Angels Boston told her she should apply to become an Angel, too. Believe it or not, Sumba went so far as to complete her orientation with the Boston office before learning that the territory covered by the Newton/Canton office made far more sense for her, given where she lived. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Sumba joined our team and began making a difference in the lives of seniors in our community.
Office and Staffing Coordinator Ryan Allen recalled when he first interviewed Sumba. “Her energy and enthusiasm jumped off the page,” he said. “I like to ask our candidates what they feel their greatest strength is. With Sumba it was clearly her ability to make people smile. The happiness that taking care of others gave her was so obvious.”
Sumba told Ryan, “What makes me proud to do this job is that I get to take care of people and hear them thank me at the end of the day,”
While the expressions of gratitude directly from clients are certainly satisfying, any of our case managers will tell you that clients under Sumba’s care consistently offer overwhelming praise as well. For example, our agency received two separate calls from two children of one of Sumba’s clients. They each expressed their appreciation for her and the genuine love and attention she consistently displayed every time she was with their mom. With this client, her experience at the hospital served her well. She suggested to the family that the client’s leg wound might be infected and require further evaluation. Ultimately, Sumba’s attentive eye and concern for the client prevented a long-term problem. The family reinstated the visiting nurse, and the client received the antibiotic she needed to treat the infection.
Director of Client Services Julie McBain noted that hearing these kinds of stories from clients about Sumba is not uncommon. “Her caring and friendly nature, combined with her passion for helping others, make her a standout professional,” Julie said. “It’s so wonderful to hear stories about not only her expertise but the warmth and positivity she brings into our clients’ homes. She truly is an invaluable asset to the team.”
Elizabeth Quagraine, Senior Case Manager, has had similar experiences working with Sumba and would happily send her to visit all her clients if she could. “She is highly empathetic and approaches her work with deep passion and sincerity,” Elizabeth said. “Regardless of the challenges, she remains solution-oriented and handles difficult situations with grace. Clients consistently request her services with good reason.”
Sumba strongly believes that seniors and their families need a Visiting Angel in their lives as the extra person can make a big difference. She explained, “I feel like extended family when I visit them, and I’m just finishing up whatever the family can’t do themselves. I want to be there to support them however I can so that the client receives the care and attention they deserve.”
A great example of the additional support a Visiting Angel can provide happened not long ago when Sumba was caring for a client on hospice. Sumba arrived on a Sunday and could see that the client’s wife was exhausted from looking after her husband around the clock. Sumba recommended that the wife call Visiting Angels to request that she come back Monday night so the client’s wife could try and get some much-needed sleep. Sumba’s suggestion, in this case, offered a bit of respite to the family during a very trying time. As a result of all her supportive care, Sumba received the “Outstanding Caregiver Award” from Boston Crematorium and tremendous praise and gratitude from the family.
Like Elizabeth and Julie, Case Manager Michael Albrecht has had the pleasure of working with Sumba. He, too, has heard clients and families shower her with praise for all her hard work. “Sumba’s commitment to our clients has truly made a difference in their quality of life,” Michael shared. “Her attention to detail and genuine kindness has not only enhanced the physical well- being of those she’s cared for, but it’s also fostered a great level of trust and respect from clients, their families, and the Visiting Angels staff.”
Likewise, Sumba loves working for Visiting Angels Newton/Canton because she appreciates how available the office staff are, especially the on-call team. “I can always talk to anybody at any time, and they listen when I call,” Sumba said. In addition, she appreciates the great pride the case management team takes in matching her with clients. However, any one of our case managers would tell you that they feel Sumba is the right match for any client!
Sumba, your overwhelming compassion and willingness to provide care in any given scenario are emblematic of what Visiting Angels stands for. In the almost two years you have been an Angel, you’ve made a significant impact on the lives of every client who has had the pleasure of benefiting from your passion for providing comfort to seniors and their families. The stories and testimonials here attest to that as does being named January’s Angel of the Month! We’re certain there are more to come in 2025 and beyond!
Olasumbo Oyigbo-AOM January-2025.pdf
About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton
Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA has been providing high calibre senior home care for over eighteen years. Countless families have benefited from our respite care, dementia care, round-the-clock care, companionship for seniors, Alzheimer’s home care, transitional aid, and home care services in Natick, Wellesley, Brookline, Watertown, Norwood, Westwood, Dedham, Needham, Roslindale, Stoughton, Upper Back Bay, Newton, Canton, Jamaica Plain, and neighboring communities. As a result of our exemplary service, Visiting Angels Newton/Canton has won the Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence Award; the Best of Home Care Provider of Choice Award; and the Best of Home Care Employer of Choice Award from the national client satisfaction survey firm, Home Care Pulse, for six years. We have been honored to receive the Boston Globe’s Top Places to Work award for seven years and one of the ten best places to work in Massachusetts in 2021 based on diversity and inclusion. Our dedicated and well-trained caregivers love their HHA and CNA caregiver jobs.