My name is Jenelle Wang, founder and administrator of MJ Senior Homecare Services LLC.
When I opened the doors to MJ Senior Homecare, I wasn't simply opening a senior care home. I was fulfilling a promise. A promise that I had made, quietly in my heart, many years before — after losing my father. What I didn't fully understand at the time, was that my promise may have begun generations before me.
This is the story of MJ Senior Homecare.
A Message from our Founder
Sometimes the greatest purpose in our lives is born from the moments that break our hearts.
The Promise I Made to My Father
There was a time when I was the daughter sitting on the other side of senior care. I wasn't an administrator. I wasn't a facility owner. I was simply a daughter who loved her father.
My father was living in a facility in Boston. During that time in my life, I did not have the financial means to place him in the kind of home I wanted for him. I had to trust that the people caring for him would watch over him, keep me informed, and give him the respect and compassion he deserved.
Sadly, that was not our experience.
Communication was limited, and I was rarely informed about changes in my father's condition. I was unaware of how sick he had become. My father had stage four cancer — I didn't find out until the day before he died.
When I traveled to Boston after his passing, I wasn't prepared for what I would see. My father had lost so much weight that he was almost entirely skin and bones, and had also developed pressure sores due to inadequate care. Seeing him that way broke something inside of me.
I carried an enormous amount of guilt. I kept thinking that somehow I had failed him as his daughter. I wished I had known more. I wished I could have afforded something better. Most of all, I wished I could go back and give him the care he deserved. But I couldn't go back.
So I made him a promise.
If I ever had the opportunity to care for someone else's family member, I would give them the kind of care I desperately wished my father had received. I would pay attention. I would communicate. I would make sure they were comfortable. I would notice the little things. Most of all, I would never allow someone in my care to feel as though they had been forgotten. That promise stayed in my heart.
Years later, it became MJ Senior Homecare Services LLC.
Then I Realized My Story Began Long Before Me
As MJ Senior Homecare began to take shape, I found myself thinking more about my family and where this desire to care for others came from. That's when the story of my great-grandmother, MayTing Kong, began to mean something very different to me. The “M” in MJ honors her.
MayTing lived in Toisan, China, during a time of war, hardship, and uncertainty. According to the stories passed down through our family, during the war with Japan, MayTing served as a midwife and would secretly make her way to women who needed her help delivering their babies.
I often think about what that must have required of her. There was fear. There was risk. Yet wherever there was a mother who needed help — MayTing went.
She didn't have a business, a title, or a mission statement. Nor was she looking for recognition. She simply saw someone who needed care, and cared for them. There is something about that that touches my heart. Because generations later, without realizing it, I found myself walking a path that felt remarkably similar.
MayTing had the privilege of caring for the beginning of life; while I have the privilege of caring for the later part of life. Different generations. Different circumstances. Different chapters of life. But the same calling: to care for someone when they need you most. And suddenly, the name MJ meant even more to me.
More Than a Name
MJ Senior Homecare is not just the name of my company. It carries my great-grandmother's compassion, my father's memory, my promise I made after losing him, and a story of familial love.
My great-grandmother taught our family what it means to care for someone who needs you. My father taught me what happens when that care is missing. Together, their stories create the heart of MJ Senior Homecare.
Those stories influence the way I look at every person who comes through our doors. I don't just see a resident. I see someone's mother or father. Someone's grandmother or grandfather. Someone's aunt or uncle. Someone who is loved and has loved. Someone who has a lifetime of stories that deserve to be honored. I see someone who matters.
Why the Little Things Matter So Much
Due to my experience with my father, communication with our families is deeply important to me. I know what it feels like to wonder.
Did dad eat today? Was he comfortable? Did someone notice that he wasn't acting like himself? Was anyone there when he was frightened? Did somebody sit with him? Did somebody care?
Those questions have never left me. That is why, at MJ Senior Homecare, the little things are never really little.
A change in appetite matters. A restless night matters. A change in behavior matters. Holding their hand when they are frightened matters. A conversation matters. A smile matters.
Caring for someone isn't simply about helping them bathe, dress, eat, or making sure they take their medications. Caring is also about protecting a person's dignity and making sure they continue to feel seen, heard, valued, and loved.
From My Family to Yours
I cannot change what happened to my father, but I have learned that sometimes we cannot rewrite the painful chapters of our lives. We can only decide what we will write because of them. I chose to turn my pain into purpose. With MJ Senior Homecare, I can honor my father by creating the kind of home I wish I could have given him while continuing a legacy of compassion that began generations before me.
When a family places a person they love in our care, they aren’t simply another resident, but someone irreplaceable. Someone whose life deserves tenderness, laughter, dignity, patience, companionship, and love. Someone whose life I will never take lightly.
My hope is that when you walk through the doors of MJ Senior Homecare, you don't feel as though you are walking into a facility, but a home.
With love, gratitude, and purpose,
Jenelle Wang
Founder & Administrator
MJ Senior Homecare Services LLC
MayTing's legacy is in our name. My father's story is in our purpose. And love is at the heart of everything we do.
