- Hello and welcome to Living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

A Bethlehem great-grandmother has been named Caregiver of the Year.

Visiting Angels is a home health care company with agencies across the country.

Each year, they choose an outstanding employee to honor their commitment to caregiving.

This year, it went to one of the Lehigh Valley's own.

- That's amore!

- At first glance, these two look like old friends.

- Hey, that's the song!

- Or even family.

- With this being one-on-one, we do become family.

- But Paula Perez is actually Marianne's caregiver.

- Look who's here!

- Hi, Miss Marianne!

- It's not like in a hospital setting or something where, you know, everything is rush, rush, rush.

It's all geared to the client, the client's needs and the client's abilities.

Never their disabilities.

- Perez works for the Lehigh Valley chapter of Visiting Angels, which covers the surrounding area, including Lehigh, Northampton, and Monroe Counties.

- Visiting Angels is a home care agency that is a franchise.

The corporation is located in Havertown, Pennsylvania.

- Each year, the company chooses an outstanding employee from across the country as Caregiver of the Year.

This year, Perez walked away with the title.

- It took me two days to come down and realize what was happening, It was very, very exciting.

Everybody kept congratulating me.

It was just like, "That's my normal job."

- The other ten caregivers were fantastic.

Their videos, you could see that they were like Paula, they were filled with integrity and kindness.

And yet, Paula won, jumping up and down screaming.

They had a live feed here in the office, with all of Paula's friends and family.

- Perez says her own life experience has trained her for the job.

- Our family took care of my mother on her last 12 years, and then, I have a 27 year-old-grandson that we've been caring for.

He has cerebral palsy and he's bedbound, so it was just natural to be in that field.

- The great-grandmother says she works anywhere from 5-7 days a week.

She was nominated by her co-workers and received a $5,000 cash prize for the honor.

- Paula has been Heaven-sent to my family.

She is the most compassionate, caring, and generous person I know.

She has a way of making everyone around her feel very special.

- In the video submission for the award, Marion's daughter spoke of how great Perez has been to her mom.

- Paula has been my mom's caregiver for a little under two years.

And, even though my mom suffers from Alzheimer's, my mom lights up when Paula walks in the room.

Paula can get my mom to laugh, sing, dance and joke around.

- Perez has been with Visiting Angels for four years, helping clients who are elderly and disabled with everyday tasks.

- Companionship is very important.

Their daily toileting, meals, cleaning up their areas.

The most important thing is trying to keep their dignity.

Treat them as you would your own parent.

And that that'll get you through your day.

- And this yum-yum... - And then, we'll put these in our pockets for later on, huh?

- While Perez took the top award as Caregiver of the Year, Visiting Angels recognized two other caregivers as finalists.

There are more than 600 Visiting Angels locations across the country.

That will do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.