There was never a question or a moment of doubt for Lisa Hutchins when the tables turned in her relationship with her father.

When she knew her father, Eddie Miester, was no longer able to care for himself, it was just natural for her to take the role of caregiver.

For Hutchins, it was her way to repay the years Miester, 72, spent caring for her and her brothers and sisters

“It is just what you are supposed to do,” Hutchins said. “He fed and clothed us and made sure we were in the best schools. He always provided for us and now I’m doing the same for him.”

Hutchins does all of her father’s shopping and makes sure he has the needed supplies to be comfortable and to carry on with life like he once did.

For Hutchins, this meant purchasing a speaker phone for her father so the two could enjoy telephone conversations despite his struggles with Parkinson’s disease.

“We used to talk on the phone a lot but the Parkinson’s made that hard because the phone would rub so bad against my ear,” Miester said.

Hutchins missed the conversations and didn’t want her father to miss out on anything. So, at Christmas she gave him the phone.

“Now we can talk like we used to until I hear him start snoring then I know it is time to go,” Hutchins said.

Judy Wiggins of Natchez feels the same way when it comes to caring for her father Finley Daniels, 90. She never wants him to feel like he is missing out.

Daniels said thanks to the care he gets from Wiggins and his other children he doesn’t have to worry about missing anything.

“They have been so much help to me that I have just turned it over to them,” Daniels said. “If others have children like mine they don’t have anything to worry about. I don’t worry about anything but meeting the good Lord.”

Wiggins said when she was growing up her family was poor but she never knew it because her father worked so hard to provide a stress-free childhood for her and her brother and sister.

“I didn’t realize how wonderful my childhood was until I became a teacher and saw what other children can go through,” Wiggins said.

And today it is her goal to make sure that her father has the same stress free life he gave her.

To do that, Wiggins provides basic care like providing hair cuts and shaves and buying new clothes, but her dedication to making her father happy goes far beyond that.

On days when Daniels is feeling a little down the two will just hop in the car and go for a drive. They often travel down country roads and visit places that Daniels used to work.

“We will go riding and let him remember the good old days, and he will tell stories about what life was like then,” Wiggins said. “He’s a great story teller, and now I’m his best listener.”

The two can also be found enjoying a milk shake as the perfect end to one of their outings.

Like Hutchins, Wiggins was more than happy to take on the extra duties required of a caregiver and hasn’t looked back since.

“It is not a sacrifice for me at all because daddy took such good care of us,” Wiggins said. “He’s my best friend, my buddy.”

Growing up, Hutchins knew her father worked hard to provide for the family and is now doing the same to provide for him.

Miester served 16 years as a police officer and another 16 years as head of security for civil district courts in New Orleans, but neither of those jobs compared to raising his children.

“Raising my kids was the hardest job I’ve ever had, but we had fun with it,” Miester said.

Miester received custody of all of his children after his divorce, and despite the hardships of being a single parent to four children, Miester never let the stress get to him and worked each day to bring in enough money to give his family a comfortable living.

“I was very busy working for 12 judges as security in the civil district court and sometimes I had to take the kids to work with me,” Miester said. “No one ever said anything about it because they knew I worked hard to keep my job.”

Hutchins said it is the dedication to family that Miester taught her that helps her care for him.

“When your parents get older you don’t just throw them away. Not after what all they do for us as children,” Hutchins said.

Miester thinks her willingness to help him has more to do with his daughter’s heart than anything else.

“She is just a good, caring, wonderful daughter,” Miester said. “She has been my life saver.”

Hutchins said one thing her father did for her was provide her with an active life despite the busy schedule he had to keep to support the family. She and her siblings were all active in sports growing up and their father taught them all to fish.

Hutchins recalled catching her first bass with her father.

“He told me before I cast my rod that it would feel like something was tapping on the line,” Hutchins said. “I felt that and I knew I had the fish and just started reeling it in.”

Similarly, Daniels felt it was important to teach his kids a recreational hobby.

“What I enjoyed most was hunting and fishing,” Daniels said. “And it was important for me to teach my children to do something that could give them pleasure.”

What Daniels may not realize though is that what brings his daughter the most pleasure is being able to care for him.

“In so much stuff I do day in and day out I don’t see a concrete reward but taking care of daddy gives me a sense of fulfillment and complete satisfaction from seeing him happy,” Wiggins said. “I dread the day that I can’t do this anymore.”