Gift services available in Traverse City, MI for my sick friend

December 17, 2019 5:20 PM

Hi there! Any mefites in Traverse City, MI, who could confirm how widely available Lyft or Uber are for a friend with late stage cancer and would primarily need them for early morning rides to chemo? I'm also considering gifting some dog walking services and wonder if anyone has a personal recommendation or knows anyone on Wag or Rover in the area. Lastly, any grocery or meal delivery services? Or how about full service laundry? Open to other ideas too! (She has cleaning covered.)

I know this is a question that I could answer with some Yelp or Google research (which I have done!) but it would be really helpful to get recommendations from local mefites.

I'm familiar with the area (grew up not far away) and I know Lyft/Uber operate there, but I don't know if the coverage would be robust enough for a 7am ride on a Tuesday morning. The last time I used a ride share there it seemed like there were only a few drivers and that was a Saturday night. If there's one that seems like it has more drivers than the other I'll go with that. Or if there's a really wonderful taxi service, feel free to recommend it!

I'm likely going to buy her a few different services for weeks when she doesn't have a lot of help, such as a dog walker, laundry service, or grocery or meal delivery. Have any local recommendations?

Few more details if it helps: she's fairly young, has an iPhone (for app access), and wouldn't be up for a meal kit and can't handle too many cold things or use her hands very well right now. People have given her plenty of material gifts and I know she's pretty tired of that. I'd like to make sure whatever I get for her is as easy to redeem and use as possible (so for laundry services it'd be great if someone could pick up and drop off vs her having to go somewhere.)

posted by the thorn bushes have roses to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

Open to other ideas too
While this is not a personal recommendation, it sounds like your friend has several different tasks which need handling, and it may be easier for them to have a single point person for the bulk of those tasks. Care.com has 12 people listed in its directory for Traverse City.
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:13 PM on December 17, 2019

So as not to abuse the edit window -- I mean one person with a few shifts a week doing that early-morning driving, weekly grocery runs, cooking several meals to store in the fridge, and getting the laundry done. A daily dog-walker may be a different person and a separate expense.
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:17 PM on December 17, 2019

Response by poster: That’s an really good and interesting idea but then I really worry about the person being around and chattering or being incompetent, which she has way too much of right now :/ And I worry about her ability right now to have to tell someone what she needs in bulk vs “okay, I need a dog walker these days because I’ll be exhausted so I’ll schedule someone via the app.” In addition while she is sick she’s also young and I got the sense palliative care both frightened her and also made her family bristle.

This wasn’t meant to dismantle that idea, Iris Gamble, it actually made me think maybe there’s a personal assistant service that’d work for this — but I would feel far better if someone local happened to know someone who does this type of thing and could give information/reassurance that the person providing the service could be low key and super professional, and doesn’t require a lot of handholding, etc.

Sorry for this threadsitting but thought this might help explain my thought process and what I’m looking for!
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:50 PM on December 17, 2019

That makes perfect sense, and I linked the care.com site because it also offers companion-type care -- but have you considered creating a listing on the MetaFilter job board (for not just a mefite rec, but an actual mefite)? A personal assistant (though cooking is not generally included in that job description), who would be fine working from a shared Google calendar and the occasional text?
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:29 PM on December 17, 2019