About ameriCARE Cleburne

“My dad and I know CAREgiving all too well. When I was two years old, my mom (Kelly) who was twenty-five-years-old had a massive stroke. This event changed the trajectory of our family. Kelly had to re-learn how to walk, talk, and write. My Dad (Marty) was her primary CAREgiver, advocate, and cheerleader on her road to recovery. Anyone who has dealt with stroke recovery can tell you it is not a straight line and requires persistence from the stroke survivor and their support system. Years later, my mom suffered a second stroke followed by a breast cancer diagnosis. We lived the family CAREgiver role firsthand for many years through each of my mom’s medical events and have a deep appreciation for what that looks like – the struggles and strains. Normal day-to-day activities were a challenge for her, so we did what family CAREgivers do and provided the extra CARE needed. Our family would have benefited greatly from the services we now provide. This experience allows us to now connect and empathize with the families we serve because we have been there. We know there is a great need for trusted and compassionate CAREgiving services with so many people now wanting to age at home. It was our experience and desire to help others live a better quality of life while aging that inspired us to bring ameriCARE to Texas, and be that extension of family that steps in to help.

My focus with ameriCARE is on making an Impact. I can feel the small impacts made when I am in the field serving our clients myself or hearing the success stories from our CARE Team. I feel the impact when I spend my day traveling with a client to her grandson’s wedding, getting her dressed & taking behind the scenes pictures of the bride and groom. I can feel the impact when I run someone to a doctor’s appointment, shop for their post-hospital discharge necessities, or sit with someone on Christmas. I feel the impact with little things like knowing we offer not just a job, but a career to our CARE Team, and by striving to be an agency where they feel CAREd for too.

I want the people I meet to feel that I am someone who CAREs about the people we serve, employ, and partner with. I want to connect with others in a way that allows me to learn how I can serve their needs and how we can together serve the needs of the older adults. The more we grow and show others how they too can share in this impact and joy from serving others, the bigger the impact can be.”

My name is Marty Baylor.  I wasn’t born in Texas but as the old saying goes…I got here as fast as I could.  I was born and raised in a small farming community in central Illinois called Farmington.  Population of about 3,000 people and a fairly tight-knit community.  I received my bachelor of science degree in accounting from Illinois State University in 1985.  I met my future wife, Kelly, my first day of college and we have been together ever since.  After college, Kelly and I married and moved to Texas.  I started working for the University of Texas at Dallas and we had our one and only child, Ashley, in 1987.

I continued working for various institutions under The University of Texas System and Texas A&M University System in business administration for the next 31 years of my career.  I started in internal auditing and moved into student registration, financial accounting and finally an Executive Vice President for Finance/Chief Financial Officer for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.  I was able to gain excellent work experiences while moving up the work ladder and got to know many wonderful people in the process.  Many of which continue to be close friends.

Early life changed quickly when Kelly suffered a major stroke and spent the two months after Ashley’s second birthday recovering in the hospital and rehabilitation facilities.  This was a huge shock to our family life.  After five or so years of recovery, Kelly was finally able to go back to work only to suffer another major stroke years later. This was another great set back for Kelly and our family.  She was never able to return to work after this second event.  While recovering from her second stroke, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  After surgery and months of treatment, she was able to beat her cancer diagnosis. It wasn’t her final health battle, but she has successfully overcome many serious health issues over our 34 years together. These years of helping Kelly deal with the myriad of health issues has had a profound effect on our lives.

After retiring in August of 2016, we moved to Fort Worth to be close to our daughter and her family.  Ashley had married Clayton Smith in 2012 and they had three children.  Hudson born in 2013, the twins, Cooper and Beau, born in 2016 and a little girl due in July.  Over the past several years, we have help CARE for the boys and hang out as much as possible. It has been very cool to be a part of the kids lives on a daily basis.

Clayton and I have spoken often of partnering in a business venture.  It makes complete and total sense that we would end up starting a Home CARE/Personal Assistance Service business. My years of experience as a CAREgiver for my wife has made a complete circle as we begin to create a CAREgiving environment for families in our community.  We are very excited about ameriCARE Fort Worth and look forward to helping families in north Texas CARE for their families as we CARE for ours.