Cancer Survivor Offers Free Cleaning to Patients in Baton Rouge

When Hope Boutee was too exhausted from chemotherapy to get off her couch, she realized something profound. There were cancer patients going through the same nightmare without anyone to help with the basics, like keeping their homes clean.

Now cancer-free after 15 months of aggressive treatment, Boutee launched Come Back Clean about a year ago in Baton Rouge. Her cleaning company partners with Cleaning for a Reason, a national charity that covers free home cleanings for cancer patients undergoing treatment.

One of her clients is Everlena Johnson, a 90-year-old who has lived in her North Baton Rouge home for 40 years. When a broken bone in her back revealed bone cancer, Johnson faced a lonely reality she'd become used to over the years.

"I don't make messes because I know nobody's going to pick it up," Johnson said. "I never had anybody to do anything."

Boutee remembers those darkest days of her own treatment vividly. "There were some days I was so tired from chemo, the first one I took was so heavy and intense I would just lay on the couch and sometimes tears would just fall because I couldn't even get up, couldn't lift my head," she said.

That memory drives her now. She thinks constantly about people going through the same journey without the support system she had.

Sunny's Take

What makes this story special isn't just the service itself. It's watching two women, separated by decades and circumstances, find healing together.

For Johnson, having someone care for her home feels like an answered prayer. "That's a joy watching somebody do this, oh my God," she said about the experience.

For Boutee, the work has become unexpectedly therapeutic. Meeting patients, hearing their stories, and praying with them has given her cancer journey new meaning. "I knew that was my why and that's what I was here to do," she said.

Johnson found something she thought would never come at 90 years old. "There's nothing better," she said simply.

Come Back Clean currently serves the greater Baton Rouge area, and Boutee is working on expanding services to Lafayette. What started as one woman's response to her own suffering is now bringing dignity and relief to cancer patients when they need it most.