Bonne Haven

06/17/2026

Sometimes the hardest part isn't the care itself — it's knowing where to start.

Here are a few Calgary-area resources worth bookmarking, whether you're just starting to look into support or you're in the thick of it:

🧓 Unison at Kerby Centre (formerly Kerby Centre) — programs, resources, and referrals for seniors 50+. 1133 7 Ave SW, Calgary | (403) 265-0661

🧠 Alzheimer Calgary — education, support groups, and Dementia Support Navigators for families navigating a dementia diagnosis. alzheimercalgary.ca

📞 211 Alberta — a free, confidential helpline that connects you to community, social, and government services across the province, including home care funding programs. Just dial 211, or visit ab.211.ca

These organizations do incredible work, and we're proud to work alongside them.
And if you ever need hands-on help at home — personal care, companionship, respite, or just someone to help with the day-to-day — that's what we're here for. 💛

[email protected]
+1-403-546-3267

Bonne Haven provides compassionate, personalized home care services in Calgary. Specializing in senior care, special needs support, companionship, personal care, and more.

06/16/2026

Sometimes the signs are loud.

But often, they are quiet.

A fridge that looks different than it used to.
Mail piling up on the counter.
Missed medications.
Fewer outings.

More “I’m fine” than real answers.

For many adult children, the shift happens slowly. One visit at a time, you start noticing little things that make you wonder if your parent needs more support at home.

Needing help does not mean everything has to change overnight.

Sometimes, it simply means starting a conversation.

At Bonne Haven, we help Calgary families think through care options with compassion, honesty, and no pressure.

If two or more of these feel familiar,let us know and we’ll reach out for a free, no-pressure chat. 💛

06/15/2026

🚨 Did you know that hiring a private caregiver makes YOU the legal employer?

That means YOU are responsible for:
❌ Their payroll taxes
❌ Workers' compensation
❌ Any injury that happens inside your home

With Bonne Haven, none of that falls on you.
We handle everything — so you can focus on what matters.

📞 Call us today for a free consultation.

06/12/2026

Three months ago, we got a call from a daughter we'll call S.

Her dad — we'll call him R. — was 84, a retired engineer, brilliant, stubborn, and (her words) "the most particular man on the planet."

He'd politely refused four caregivers from three different agencies over the past year. "He just looks at them, says thank you for coming, and the next week the agency calls me and says he asked them not to send anyone back."

She didn't have high hopes for us. She was, in her words, "just calling because my therapist made me."

We talked for 20 minutes. Mostly about her dad. What did he do for work? Mechanical engineer, oil and gas, retired in 2008. What did he love? Chess. The morning paper. Speaking Polish, which his late wife had taught him. A specific brand of Earl Grey tea (Twinings, loose leaf, only).

We thought about it for a day. Then we sent J.

J. is a former math teacher from the Philippines who moved to Calgary in 2019. She plays chess (badly, she admits, but happily). She doesn't fuss. She makes tea properly.

She speaks four languages but not Polish — and she made R. teach her three words on the first visit.

She's been with R. four times a week for three months now. Last week he taught her how to set up the chess board the way his father had taught him in Warsaw in 1948.

S. messaged us a few days ago. "I don't know what you did. But my dad is teaching someone chess again. He hasn't done that since my mom died."

The thing nobody talks about in home care is that finding a caregiver is easy. Finding the right caregiver — the one whose energy fits your parent's energy, whose pace fits their pace, whose curiosity fits their world — that's the whole game.

If you've tried home care before and it didn't stick, the match may just have been wrong. Worth talking through.

Have a beautiful weekend, Calgary. 💛

06/11/2026

Quick question for our Calgary community:

What's the first flower you remember? 💐

Mine was the peonies in my grandma's front yard. Heavy pink heads that flopped over by the second week of June, dragging in the dirt, half the bush always tilted toward the sidewalk like it was waiting for someone to come home.

Smell-memory and flower-memory are funny. They don't fade the way other memories do. We forget what someone looked like before we forget what the peonies in their yard smelled like.

Tell us in the comments — what's the first flower you remember? Whose garden was it? 💛

06/10/2026

When it comes to the people you love most, you deserve more than a stranger from the internet.

You deserve accountability. Training. A team behind every caregiver.

That's what we provide — every single day.

📞 Call us: +1-403-546-3267

06/10/2026

🌞 Free senior-friendly summer activities in Calgary — saved-post edition.

Calgary in June and July is unusually generous with free outdoor programming, but most of it isn't well-advertised to families with aging parents.

Here's a curated list of things genuinely worth taking mom or dad to this summer:

📚 Calgary Public Library outdoor programming — Many branches run summer reading programs, gentle outdoor events, and accessible drop-ins. Memorial Park Library and Central Library are both excellent senior-friendly venues. Free.

🌷 Reader Rock Garden — Across from Stampede Park. Peonies and iris peak in mid-June. Quiet, beautifully maintained, mostly flat paths. One of Calgary's hidden gems for senior outings. Free.

🦅 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary — Gentle paths, washrooms, lots of benches, peak birdsong through June. Free.

🎻 Saturday afternoons at Heritage Park — Free with park admission, regular live music and entertainment through summer. Paved paths, indoor and outdoor seating, accessible.

🍅 Calgary Farmers Markets (multiple) — Saturday mornings before 10 AM are quieter and more senior-friendly. Calgary Farmers' Market (Blackfoot Trail) and Crossroads Market are year-round and indoors if the weather turns. Most neighbourhood markets (Hillhurst Sunnyside, Bridgeland, Kingsland) are now open for the season.

🎬 Free movies in the parks (Movies in the Park YYC) — Starts late June. Bring a folding chair and a warm jacket — June evenings in Calgary cool off fast.

♿ Note on accessibility: Heritage Park, the Calgary Zoo, and most Calgary Public Library branches are fully wheelchair accessible. Calgary Transit Access (low-floor buses with priority seating) connects most of these venues.

🌡️ Heat reminder: As we head into late June and July, plan outdoor outings for before 11 AM or after 5 PM. Calgary heat can change fast, and older bodies regulate temperature less efficiently.

Save this post for the summer. Tag a sibling who's planning to visit mom soon. 💛
If your parent would love to get out more often but mobility makes it hard, our caregivers help with exactly that — companion outings, transportation, a steady arm. Book a free 15-minute call any time.

06/09/2026

Medication Safety at Home: What Calgary Families Should Know About a Parent's Prescriptions

One in three Canadian seniors takes ten or more medications a day. Some take fifteen. Some take twenty.
If you're an adult child trying to keep track of what your parent takes, when, and why — you're not alone, and you're not failing. The system is genuinely confusing. Here's what we wish every Calgary family knew.

1. There is no master list — unless you make one.
Your parent's pharmacist sees what they dispense. The GP sees what they prescribe. The specialist sees what they prescribe. The hospital, if there's ever a stay, sees what's on the chart that day. Nobody has the complete picture except you. A printed list, kept on the fridge and updated whenever something changes, is the single most useful safety tool you can create. Bring it to every doctor's appointment.

2. Watch for "deprescribing" opportunities.
This is a quiet revolution in geriatric medicine that most families haven't heard of yet. The reflex used to be: a senior has a symptom, add a medication. The new reflex is: maybe we can take one off. Many medications that made sense at 65 cause more harm than good at 85. Ask your parent's GP directly: "Is there anything on this list we could try removing?" You may be surprised what comes off.

3. The five medications that cause the most preventable problems in seniors.
Worth knowing the names so you can ask the right questions:

Benzodiazepines (lorazepam, clonazepam, diazepam) — often prescribed for sleep or anxiety, dramatically increase fall risk in older adults
Anticholinergics (some bladder medications, certain antihistamines like Benadryl) — can worsen confusion and memory
Opioids for chronic non-cancer pain — long-term use rarely helps as much as families think
PPIs (proton pump inhibitors like omeprazole, pantoprazole) — often kept long after they were needed; long-term use has real downsides
Sleeping pills of all kinds — a major contributor to falls and confusion in seniors

This isn't a list of "bad" medications. They all have appropriate uses. The point is: if your parent has been on any of these for years without a recent review, ask for one.

4. The kitchen-table audit.
Once or twice a year, sit at your parent's kitchen table with every pill bottle in the house. Throw out what's expired. Throw out what's been discontinued. Compare what's on the bottles to the printed list. You'll find discrepancies. Every family does.

5. Use one pharmacy.
If your parent fills prescriptions at three different pharmacies, no pharmacist has the full picture. Pick one — preferably one that delivers and offers blister-pack (Dosett) packaging. In Calgary, Shoppers Drug Mart, London Drugs, and most independent pharmacies offer this service. It dramatically reduces medication errors.

6. Pay attention to changes after a hospital stay.
Almost every hospital admission alters a senior's medication list. Sometimes things are added that don't need to be permanent. Sometimes things are stopped that were actually important. In the first two weeks after discharge, review every medication with the GP — not just the new ones.

7. When to bring in extra help.
If your parent is missing doses, doubling doses, or getting confused about which pill is which — that's not stubbornness or "just getting older." It's a safety signal. Home care, even just a few hours a week, can include medication reminders, blister-pack management, and watching for the small changes that mean something is wrong.

If you're worried your parent's medications are becoming a quiet safety issue — and you're not sure what to do next — that's exactly the kind of thing a 15-minute conversation can help sort through.

No pressure, no pitch. Just a real talk with someone who's seen this pattern in a lot of Calgary kitchens. 💛

https://www.bonnehaven.com/
[email protected]
+1-403-546-3267

06/08/2026

Six things our caregivers learned from Calgary seniors this spring. 💛

Every week, our team comes back from visits across the city with small pieces of wisdom we didn't have before. Some are practical. Some are funnier than they sound.

All of them stay with us.

Here are a few from this season:
1. "If the kettle is on, you have time to listen."
From an 87-year-old in Bridgeland who has made tea for every person who's walked through her door for sixty years.

2. "You don't get to choose what hurts. You get to choose what you do at 2 PM."
From a widower who lost his wife eighteen months ago. He's started taking afternoon walks. They help.

3. "The garden doesn't care if you're tired."
From a 91-year-old who still kneels (carefully) in her yard most days. She's planted tomatoes again this year. She always does.

4. "Read the obituaries. It reminds you you're still here."
From a 79-year-old who reads the Calgary Herald with her coffee every morning. She didn't mean it dark. She meant it as gratitude.

5. "Don't fix what just needs witnessing."
From a man in Inglewood whose wife has dementia. When she gets lost in a memory, he doesn't redirect anymore. He sits with her in it. He says the day goes better.

6. "Most things get better with a cup of tea and twenty minutes."
From almost every senior we've ever met.

The work of home care isn't really about the tasks. It's about being the person who shows up at someone's kitchen table and pays attention. That's what they're teaching us, every week.

If you've been thinking about what kind of support might help a parent in your life, book a free 15-minute conversation with us anytime — no pressure, no pitch.

06/06/2026

🎗️ Seniors' Week ends today.

To every Albertan with sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety years of stories — thank you.

For the suppers you made, the kids you raised, the neighbourhoods you held together, the gardens you planted and tended through decades of Calgary winters and prairie summers.

You don't owe us your stories. But when you share them, we'll listen.

That's the work.

Happy 40th anniversary of Alberta Seniors' Week.

Here's to forty more. 💛