December 27, 2013
Lubna Ismail is the owner of Right at Home, a home-based eldercare franchise. She has lived in Leonia for the past 15 years with her husband Jafar and their five children Mukarram, Moazzam, Nooreen, Nasir and Sami. Before starting her own company, she was a software support specialist at Spectra East and the financial coordinator for the Teaneck Community Education Center-Teaneck Board of Education. She volunteers with UCDC, United Community Development Center, in Teaneck and recently joined Rotary of the Palisades.
Q: What does Lubna mean?
A: Lubna is an uncommon Arabic name that translates to “a stream of milk in the heavens.” It’s symbolic of peace and tranquility. Unlike my name, I’m always on the go.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I was born in Hyderabad, India, south of Bombay. When I was 4, we moved to Palisades Park. My father, who had been a machinist in the Indian Air Force, was offered a job at FMC in New Jersey. I spent my youth there and graduated from Palisades Park High School.
Q: What were your first impressions of the U.S.?
A: We arrived in the dead of winter, and my first memory was waking up one morning, looking out my bedroom window and seeing everything covered in white. I’d heard of snow but seeing it for the first time was indescribable!
Q: How did you adjust to life in Palisades Park?
A: I was the only Hindi-speaking kid in town. Palisades Park back then was mostly Italian and I was one of the only minorities. After six months of ESL classes, I learned English and forgot Hindi. I became so Americanized that I had culture shock when I returned to India as a teen.
Q: Did you have any family traditions growing up?
A: Thanksgiving was huge. We didn’t have any relatives so our friends were family. My parents used to make an elaborate turkey dinner, a recipe passed on by our neighbor Mrs. Goodrich. Whenever we had visitors from India, we’d take them to the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, followed by dinner at “Curry in a Hurry” on Lexington Avenue in the city. We also celebrated birthdays at Curry in a Hurry. At the time, it was the only Indian restaurant around.
Q: What were your interests in high school?
A: I’ve always enjoyed helping others and I was a very good student. I had lots of offers to attend college, but the expectation in my family was that my parents would arrange my marriage with a suitable groom from India as soon as I graduated from high school.
Q: Was yours an arranged marriage?
A: No. When I was a junior in high school, we visited India to interview potential grooms, but I met Jafar there on my own. He was in the Indian Merchant Marines, and friends with my older brother. I was smitten when he rode up on a motorcycle. After I returned to the US, we corresponded by mail and he sent me photos of himself in uniform. My father intercepted a letter and when he realized how much we liked each other, my parents began the wedding plans. I graduated from high school June 25 and Jafar and I were married in India on July 5. Our first child, Mukarram, was born a year later. Jafar and I have been married twenty-two years.
Q: Prior to starting your own business, what type of work did you do?
A: When my first son was 20 days old, I went to work for Spectra East in Rockleigh, a renal dialysis company, as a computer support analyst. I had three more children, including my twins, while I worked there. I was very fortunate to have the help of my husband, parents and in-laws during those years.
Q: Why did you move to Leonia?
A: With four kids at the time, we moved here for the good schools and the six-bedroom fixer-upper house on Ames Avenue. Leonia was ideally situated between my husband’s job as a senior project manager/computer analyst in the city and my job in Rockleigh. It was also close to where we worship – the Teaneck Mosque. And it was near my parents, who still lived in Palisades Park. It’s our homestead, where all our family parties are held.
Q: What’s UCDC?
A: At the advice of my father-in-law, I quit my job when my eldest child entered middle school. I got involved with many volunteer activities, including the UCDC, the United Community Development Center, a Muslim cultural organization that inspires youth to excel academically, encourages youth to volunteer at the soup kitchens, and successfully runs a senior citizen social club.
Q: What type of work did you do for the Teaneck Board of Education?
A: As the financial coordinator for the Community Center, I managed the financials for the trips, the summer school camp, SACC, and community education programs. It was a wonderful job.
Q: What’s your passion?
A: Cooking! After I quit my first job, I volunteered at the Teaneck Mosque and ran a small summer camp where I taught kids how to bake and make simple meals. I became passionate and continued to cook at home for people. That grew into a small catering business. For several years, I also taught an Indian cooking class at the Teaneck Community Center. It became a very popular class and branched out to beginners, intermediate, advanced and kosher. I met many Leonians in my classes. I’ve always cooked Indian food for the ACS International dinner as well.
Q: What’s your specialty dish?
A: I have three: Shami kebabs, Hyderabadi Biryani, and Chicken 65, a dish that also originated in Hyderabad.
Q: Where would you most like to travel?
A: My husband is an adventurer who loves to travel, so we’ve explored much of the world. In the past year, he’s hiked up Mount Kilamanjaro and Mount Ranier with old friends from the Merchant Marines DMET. The two of us recently visited Australia. High on my travel wish list is Italy, Africa and New Zealand.
Q: Why did you start a home health agency?
A: I’ve always wanted to start my own business. Like many entrepreneurial Indians, my husband and I talked about a franchise like 7/11 or Dunkin’ Donuts, but the startup expenses were exorbitant and I preferred a business that provided a service to the community. My mother had a stroke and I was her sole caregiver. As her condition declined, I hired home health aides to help. I learned everything I could about the home health business. Two years ago, I discovered the home health franchise Right at Home, and made the investment. I’m doing what I love. I have now branched out to two locations in Bergen County and for information you can log on to rahebc.com.
Q: What makes your agency different than others?
A: I take special pride in my ability to match the right home health aide with the client. My mother’s first home health aide was Korean-speaking, and my mother couldn’t communicate her most basic needs. I requested a Hindi aide and what a difference that made in the quality of my mom’s care.
Q: What’s in your future?
A: For 2014, I’ll be chairing Rotary of the Palisades CPRA (CPR Anytime) program. Our goal is to teach as many local residents and students how to do compression-only CPR. There are 400,000 cardiac arrests in the U.S. every year and only 8 percent survive. Long term, my dream is to one day open a daycare center where senior citizens can socialize, be entertained, get a little exercise, and have fun. Anything to make the seniors smile and feel joy. It’s not easy being elderly.
Q: What do you most like about Leonia?
A: Everyone looks out for one another. My neighbors on Ames have been particularly welcoming since the day we moved in. I’m also happy with all the extra-curricular programs offered by the schools and in-town for my kids. Each was involved in a different sport so I’ve been an AYSO soccer mom, a wrestling team mom, a Dae Han Tae Kwon Do mom, and a LHS crew team mom.
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