Many families have been there. Their beloved parents or grandparents are aging and need care that they and their families no longer can provide.

Comfort Keepers now offers an option for caring for these elderly persons in need of special assistance in South and Southwest King County.

An in-home assisted-living service for the elderly, Comfort Keepers provides caregivers to clients in their homes to perform some of the chores and other tasks that they or their family are no longer able to do.

Services include light housekeeping, meal preparation, laundry, grocery shopping and medication reminders.

One Comfort Keepers client is Burien resident Glenn St. Charles.

A retired owner of an archery store and an experienced bow hunter who has written two books on the subject, St. Charles, now 96, has needed a little help since his wife died in 1999.

His Comfort Keepers caregiver helps him three hours a day, five days a week, with his housework and cooking.

Caregiver Nancy Peterson makes sure he has enough food on weekends to last until Monday rolls around again.

"He still has his own house and lives in it, which is great for a 96-year-old," said St. Charles' daughter Rochelle Hughes.

St. Charles, an avid swap meet attendee, has even had someone from Comfort Keepers come out to drive him to a few events.

Staying at home has also allowed St. Charles to keep up with people he has befriended in his years as an archer.

"It's huge to him to be able to entertain people in the atmosphere that he's used to," Hughes said.

Comfort Keepers' owner Kim Sanchez said that a national survey of people over age 65 revealed that 95 percent of seniors would like to stay in their own home as their need for care grows.

"Who wouldn't want to live in their house in their later years?" Hughes asked.

Comfort Keepers is a national franchise that has 550 offices operating in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Sanchez estimates that 60 percent of her clients live in Burien-North Highline, Des Moines, Sea-Tac and Tukwila.

Comfort Keepers and service providers like it offer an alternative to assisted living facilities and nursing homes, she said.

Visiting Angels and Home Instead Senior Care are her primary competitors in providing private home care.

Sanchez purchased the local Comfort Keepers in 2002, opening the business with her father, Jim Bianchi. Nearly six years later the company has done nothing but grow by at least 15 percent each year, she added.

Most of the growth she attributes to word of mouth.

Sanchez wants seniors and their families to know that Comfort Keepers and similar businesses provide an alternative to assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

As any company grows service always becomes a question, but Sanchez takes pride in what they are doing.

"Something I will never compromise is our quality," she said.

Sanchez attributes the growth of the company to four main factors:

Medical technology and life expectancy are constantly improving.

Many families now have dual incomes and with both spouses working it can be difficult for them to care for aging parents.

Our society is becoming more mobile and children and parents don't necessarily live in the same city anymore, so they have to find other options for family care.

And with people moving more, it is not as likely to find neighbors who can help an elderly person with a few chores.

Comfort Keepers currently has about 35 clients at one time, with some 50 caregivers employed to serve those clients.

The company offers different levels of service, ranging from three hours a week to 24 hours, seven days a week.

Individual clients see the same caregivers, so there is opportunity to establish rapport, something that Sanchez says is extremely important to the company's success.

Sometimes Sanchez exchanges e-mail or gets a complimentary letter from a client's family.

One thing for sure is that Comfort Keepers helps St. Charles and his family.

"He still feels needed, he still is needed," Hughes declared.

"It's like you realize what you were meant to do," Sanchez said. "This really fulfills the business side for me; we know we are really helping people. It is very fulfilling."

Building rapport also means that caregivers get attached to their clients as well. In some cases, they have to deal with losing a client, which can be difficult.

"They are professionals at what they do," Sanchez observed. "As you go through it more and more you get more used to it, and you realize that you are there to fulfill a certain part of their lives, a good part, and to help them."

Potential caregivers must go through an FBI background check to ensure the security of the company's clients.

Hourly care for the clients with lesser needs ranges from $21 to $23 an hour, while those that require live-in care pay $250 to $275 a day. Sanchez said those prices are comparable to those of a good nursing home.