Featured People

Maintenance supervisor enjoys making lives better
BY DARIN FENGER, SUN STAFF WRITER
Published on: April 23, 2006

Not many people can say they’re related to an entire nursing home.

That’s why Armando Cabuto, when he tells his unique story, always smiles, laughs — and gives his sincerest thanks.

When Cabuto moved here for a maintenance job at Palm View Rehabilitation and Care Center, all his blood relatives lived miles away. He simply decided to adopt the center’s residents into his heart — as his very own.

"These people here, they are my family," he said. "I see everyone here like my grandpa and my grandma. This is how I feel. It is how I can give more to everyone. I just see them as my family."

Right from the start, the maintenance supervisor earned a reputation for staying late and working on weekends, taking just whatever time was needed to fix something, do a favor or simply sit down and chat for awhile.

"I just like to be there for them when they need something done, say if their TV isn’t working or their wheelchair needs to be fixed. Sometimes, I’m ready to go home and they stop me ’Hey can you look at my light?’ So I do it, take care of it and then I can go home and know his light is fixed and he is happy. And that makes me happy."

On top of taking a resident or two on the occasional shopping trip to Wal-Mart, Cabuto is also loved for putting on barbecues for the residents several times a year.

He said he just realizes that his job goes far past making mechanical things work better. He believes in making hearts feel better, too.

"I want to show the residents that they are not alone. They have somebody. Some of the residents, they have no family — nobody. I want to show them that they are important."

Cabuto never intended to stay long at Palm View. In fact, it was only supposed to be a blip on his resumé. But he fell in love with the people there and the rest is history — all 25 years of it.

"It feels like I just got here yesterday. I just really like my job!"

That desire to work hard and care deeply for his fellow man reaches back to his childhood in Mexicali. That’s where Cabuto witnessed at a young age how most people in his extended family suffered lives of endless labor, being forced into jobs where only their hands were of real use.

"I wanted to do something with my life, be someone in life, not just work as a laborer. I saw my family and I saw them do nothing but work."

His immediate family was pretty poor, too. "To go to school we had to buy our own books and our own clothes. There just wasn’t enough for everybody."

After high school, Cabuto went to school and became a registered nurse. He later moved to San Diego, where he landed a job at a nursing home, working in the maintenance department since he wasn’t licensed in the United States.

Cabuto planned to eventually get his nursing training on this side of the border, but the program’s waiting list was always too long. So he just stayed in the maintenance field and further refined his craft.

Cabuto came to Yuma from a job at Palm View’s sister nursing center in Sierra Vista.

He wasn’t on the ground here too long before he started making himself truly at home at Palm View. He did that by sharing something that everyone enjoys: a wonderful meal. That’s when he began his tradition of cooking up a barbecue two or three times a year.

"I was single then and had nobody, and this place was like my family. So I wanted to cook for everyone, even make my own salsa."

Cabuto makes carne asada and serves about 90 appreciative residents each time.

"When I see everyone eating and enjoying, it makes me just want to do it again! I would do it every day if I could."

He began his own family in Yuma when he married Maria in 1995. They have two children.

Cabuto loves being a family man, too. He said the family enjoys spending lots of time together, doing everything from going to the park or river to checking out a movie or going shopping.

Ever the maintenance man, Cabuto also keeps his green Chevy all tuned up so the family can take it off-roading in the desert.

On his own, Cabuto enjoys keeping active. "I like to walk and to play racquetball."

Back at Palm View, he not only oversees the maintenance department but the departments of janitorial, housekeeping and laundry.

But no matter how busy Cabuto may be with a chore, his policy always is to stop and take the time to visit when residents approach him — or if they simply look lonely.

"I like to just spend time with them, talk about their lives. It’s really nice, you know. Sometimes I’ll just see someone sitting along and I’ll ask ’How’s it going? Are you okay? Do you need something?’ ”

When he hires someone, demanding that kind of interaction is part of the training he gives.

"This is not a factory. These are human beings and this is their home. They can feel and they have needs," Cabuto said.

"When I hire someone I tell them ’Hey, remember that you work with people here. They are going to be talking to you and touching you. If you can’t handle that, I’m sorry. Go find another job.’ ”

So many residents have become true friends over the years, creating a load of memories that Cabuto says is sometimes so hard to believe.

"Even after these 25 years I still remember all of them. I remember names and what they did."

Sadly, he also remembers when he said goodbye to each one of them. Yes, seeing a resident make their transition into death is a part of his job that certainly hasn’t gotten any easier with time.

"Oh, it’s very sad. Sometimes I feel like crying, but you can’t. You work here and you have to be strong," Cabuto said. "But if they are suffering or something, then I know they have to go."

His helping and caring doesn’t even stop with that person’s death. In fact, Cabuto is probably the last person at all of Palm View to show a deceased resident that one, last kind gesture.

He’s the one who boxes residents’ belongings after they die, a responsibility that has almost turned into a ritual for Cabuto.

"I just make sure everything is nice and in boxes. The person may be dead, but you have to give them respect," he said. "It’s frustrating because there isn’t much more you can do for them at that point.

"I’m sad then, but I just remember that I had helped them before. I had hopefully made them happy while they were here."

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Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com



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