Summary
On this episode, host Peter Murphy Lewis talks with Collette Mieres, Executive Director of Ovation Heartwood Preserve. She shares how early lessons in compassion shaped her leadership in senior living and how creativity, empathy, and everyday acts of kindness drive meaningful care for both residents and staff.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(01:01) Family influences can shape a lifelong commitment to care.
(04:17) Love and care for patients make a lasting impact.
(06:38) Creativity in daily activities enhances connection and joy.
(08:44) Treating others like family builds trust and belonging.
(12:44) Leadership is about being on the floor with your team.
Resources Mentioned:
Ovation Heartwood Preserve website
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Transcript
Collette Mieres: I want the art class not to be elementary, but to fit the residents' mind and frame of mind. Just because they're aging. Age is but a number.
Peter Murphy Lewis: The world does not run on headlines. It runs on people who care. I'm Peter Murphy Lewis, and this is "People Worth Caring About." Alongside my cohost, Jalene Carpenter, we sit down with the unsung heroes, caregivers, healers, helpers, the ones doing the real work, even when no one is watching. These conversations are not polished. They're personal. Because behind every act of care is a story worth hearing. New episodes drop regularly. Get updates at peopleworthcaringabout.com.
Collette Mieres: Hi, I'm Collette Mieres. I'm the executive director for Ovation Heartwood Preserve.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Collette, welcome to the podcast.
Collette Mieres: Thank you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Your story's interesting. I'm going to start off with who you wrote down as your hero, the person who inspired you?
Collette Mieres: My mom.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell me her story through your eyes.
Collette Mieres: I told you, I think she was an amazing human, and she ended up dying of Alzheimer's last year. She was a nurse. She started off as a midwife, young, beautiful. And then she went to England. We lived in England. When I was nine months old, we went to England. And she foot her education, did management, came back home to Trinidad and Tobago, and she started again in midwifery, and then took her job as an administrator for Mount Hope Maternity Women's Hospital. She did that for 25-plus years. Just the way that she used to carry herself. And I remember, as a kid, after school coming into her office. And she had a huge office, and she had a sink in her office, and there was tons of people sitting outside of her door. That was their offices. And to get to her, you have to go through these people. Her secretary was right by her door. I'm looking around, and I'm thinking, "She must be something big." And she had to sign every paycheck, because back in the day, there was stamps or you sign it. There was no computer stuff.
And she had so much passion, so much love in her heart for humans, for people. I remember she was very religious, meaning she loved God so much. I mean, she used to do so much, going above and beyond. We had people in the community that she knew or didn't know, and needed something extra, needed a surgery, that needed emergency and they couldn't get it done. And she would step in and get that surgery done for them the next day. When she passed away, her funeral was amazing. There was so many people, so many stories of how many people she had helped along the way. How many food baskets that she gave, how many health fears that she'd helped women and men just deal with health issues and stuff like that. So many lives.
And for me, as a child growing up, I never thought I wanted to do management. It's not something that I... I love public relations, and accounting was my love, and I wanted to be an artist. This is what I wanted to do. I'm an artist. I love to paint and draw. And my parents were both nurses and both moved on to different careers. I knew her as Mommy. I knew her as, when she get in that car, we're driving home. We're going to the grocery store. We're getting dinner. It didn't have to be early. It could be 10 o'clock at night, but she was taking care of us. And then she would start again. She's up at five o'clock in the morning. She's singing, and she is getting ready for the day. And it was constant.
She was a powerful woman, and she was so humble, so gracious with it. Always well-dressed. She'd usually wear pink lipstick, and I usually wear pink lipstick, but today, I have a different color on. The love that she showed and cared for people, it passed down, transcended. She put people before her. It was that love and that caring, that it was okay to care for somebody else, to make sure that they're okay, that they're healed, that they get everything that they deserve in however capacity, whether it be calling a physician at night and saying, "Hey, I have somebody that need surgery or I need somebody." Or, she adds her husband on administrator. Her secretary, I never forgot, was having a baby. Guess who was at delivery? She went to deliver that baby. She was there, delivering that baby. I remember some of my cousins and having babies, and she was in that delivery room having babies. To me, that was powerful.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah.
Collette Mieres: That was powerful to me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What did she think of you following in her footsteps going into health care, going in the long-term thing?
Collette Mieres: She was very proud of me. And I got a card from her. I saw a card recently, and it said, "I love you beyond measure. Thank you for your hospitality, always." It was profound. And she was so proud of what I'm doing, and she prayed me through it, prayed me through it. Questions and answers. And my dad too. He was another significant guide in my life, but I remember praying me through it. I can ask her managerial questions, leadership questions, and she will assist me as I go along. It was powerful.
Peter Murphy Lewis: This show is powered by AAG Health, the team behind the teams. If you're building a care team that actually cares, nurses, doctors, techs, admin pros, AAG doesn't just fill jobs. They find people who show up and stay. Visit aag.health, and see how fast the right people can make all the difference.
How does your creative side, your artistic side, impact the way that you manage and the way that you deliver care?
Collette Mieres: Sometimes God gives you a heart. You're just blessed with a heart that you don't know anything else but to love, and you don't know anything else but human kindness. And so, for me, whether be it doing a high tea at noon, putting together a high tea party for my residents or doing my photography. I'm an amateur photographer, but I love capturing those moments and surprising families, just going in. And if you come to my community, you'll see my art, a piece of my art. I remember we had just opened, and they needed something on the easel, and in 30 minutes, I was able to draft off, do something for them. It's still there.
And to see the love, the residents are, "Oh, you did that?" And so, I'm able to, I will say, for cooking in my other communities. I used to cook for family nights and happy hour. I would go in the kitchen, and I would make beignets. And the stories some of the families tell, the art classes and the activities and going to Carmel with the residents and just bringing that in. I'm almost always involved in activities. I want it always to be a little bit more. I want the art class not to be elementary, but to fit the residents' mind and frame of mind. Just because they're aging, age is but a number. I want to see where age is, where the arts and the programs are built in for people that, as they age, they want to... It's what they want to do, what they like. And so, you see, all of that transcends for me and my artistic flair.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Do you have any sayings, any advice that you maybe heard from your mom, or maybe not your mom, that you still repeat to yourself today, to remind you of just something simple to keep you set, focused?
Collette Mieres: I have been an ED for 19 years, started off as a nurse, and I've been an ED for 19 years. And I have grown leadership wise in how I feel like how I ask myself, how would I want to be treated? How would I want my parents, or my family, to be treated? And when I look at my resident families, and I look at my residents, and I tell them, I said, "You entrust your loved one to me. I will tell you, I will make sure and give them the most love and the utmost care ever." And I lead by example. So my staff sees this, and then it follows down the line.
Peter Murphy Lewis: How do you replenish yourself outside of work if you give so much? What's your-
Collette Mieres: I love to cook. I also have two daughters. One is eight and one is 14. And the eight-year-old has Down syndrome and autism, and she has become such a close companion. But I love to cook. I love to do my gardening. My neighbors love my backyard, because as soon as I leave work, I walk out into my backyard. When I come in, that's the first thing. Sometimes I catch myself at nine o'clock outside. I just pour that love into that backyard. The lights, from the lights, from the Bohemian theme. And I love people, and so I invite people to come in and rest, and I cook you good food.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Love it. What's your go-to dish? If I'm coming to your house tomorrow and you have 24 hours to do it, what are you going for?
Collette Mieres: Well, then I'll ask you, "What do you like?" I cook the world cuisine.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, I like everything.
Collette Mieres: Good.
Peter Murphy Lewis: My wife is an amazing cook, and so she just tries new things on me all the time.
Collette Mieres: Sure. Trinidad is one of the smallest, largest melting pots in the world. So we have everything from East Indian dishes to Chinese dishes, to African dishes too, because we're the tip of South America, so you name it. Usually, I cook curry chicken and make dalpuri rotis and all those things. Or I could make a mean lasagna or biryani. Or if you catch me on a good day, you might get some Lebanese.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Nice.
Collette Mieres: You know, so I'll go on an entourage.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Amazing.
Collette Mieres: Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I find that younger generation frontline caregivers don't always see themselves as having an impact on the people that work around them. What have you learned from somebody inside of your organization who's a frontline caregiver or maybe maintenance or maybe in the kitchen that continues to teach you?
Collette Mieres: And that's a good point, because I always say to my team, and you said it this morning, it's that word "just." And if you were to walk into my community right now, and you would ask them, "What is my pet peeve?" It's when I hear my team say "just." Because I will tell you, the compassion, the time that they spend, that one degree that they push, that they give the resident by sitting down, by just listening to them. My friend, and she's also from Trinidad, and she came here, and she is actually working at my community, and she's a bath aide. I will tell you, she's not just a bath aide.
The love and the caring that she gives from giving that unwashed a shower, getting that bath ready, to making sure that resident hair's shampooed and combed in the right way, to the lotioning on the skin, to make sure that the feet between the toes are dried, to giving them a kiss on their cheek if they would allow it, just that hug. To me, that is significant and surreal. I feel like it's just like wrapping somebody around, giving them that assurance with love. And my mantra is almost always say, "Human kindness transcends all." Beyond that, you never know what you could do with the world when you just love a little bit more.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Ain't that the truth?
Collette Mieres: I can't... It's a passion. And I always tell people too, my job is a job. It's a title. And I'm not in my office. I'm on the floor with the residents and the staff. And I make sure every day that I meet each team member just to say hello, just I say, "I want to see the white of your eyes. Are you okay? Is there anything that I could do for you?" And not only the care staff, but my leadership team too. Got to get them. I feel like if we could empower them to be kind and to love on their team, then their team will love on our residents. You feel it. You feel that love.
Peter Murphy Lewis: It's gorgeous.
Collette Mieres: Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Collette, thank you so much for joining me.
Collette Mieres: You're welcome.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Your energy is unforgettable.
Collette Mieres: Thank you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I'll never forget you.
Collette Mieres: Thank you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Thank you so much.
Collette Mieres: You're welcome.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That's a wrap on "People Worth Caring About," born from the documentary, built to keep the stories going. Shout out to Nebraska Health Care Association and Jalene Carpenter for helping launch it, and to Ohio and New Mexico for making future seasons real. Watch the docuseries online or at peopleworthcaringabout.com. And if this episode meant something to you, leave a review. It matters. Take care of yourself and the people worth caring about.
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