WORCESTER, Mass. - Construction continues on Hamilton Street in Worcester as the new My Family adult day care facility takes shape.
Specializing in day care for the elderly, My Family is owned by Pavlina Tollkuci, who saw a need for such services when she and her family immigrated to the United States from Albania in 1996.
Tollkuci’s parents and in-laws were very active in Albania, but when they moved to the U.S., the language barrier, lack of community, long work hours, and lack of a driver’s license took their toll on them. After a lot of research, Tollkuci found a local adult day care where she registered her family and then she encouraged other elderly Albanians in the area to join.
“This gave me the idea of building a day care which will provide much more things to my Albanian elderly in my family,” Tollkuci said in an interview on Monday. “Everyone will be welcome there and it will be treated like family, but I will make sure that all elderly immigrants will have their speaking language and their own food.”
“This is my dream to make them happy. My heart it’s broken because my father loved this idea, but he didn’t live to see it. He just passed away,” Tollkuci said about the inspiration behind her new business.
The elderly adult day care will provide supervising care administered by nurses, entertainment provided by trained staff members, and meals for breakfast and lunch.
Construction at 294 Hamilton St. was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but construction is expected to be completed in September. The My Family center is located on the former Shaker’s Cafe and La Cucina Italiana restaurants property.