For the past year, the Senior Care Program has been actively making a difference in people's lives by helping clients in their everyday tasks.

He should have been wearing angel wings or even shining armor, Hatsue "Sue" Shiroyama thought. But when Aerts came to Shiroyama's home, he appeared simple, ordinary and human.

Just a few months ago, Shiroyama's backyard was falling to pieces. Now, she can stand in her backyard smiling at the brightly-colored impatiens, azaleas, a large oak tree, apple tree and her cherished Japanese maple all because of the Senior Care Program.

But little did she know from her first visit with Aerts that her precious patio would soon be transformed. At the time, Shiroyama's husband, Kiyoshi, 88, also known as "Dick," was experiencing health problems in the aftermath of a major heart attack. He had just been placed under hospice care, and required all of Shiroyama's energy and time to stay constantly by his bedside—leaving little relief for herself.

"I didn't realize I was under stress," she said. "I was getting worn out so easily."

When Shiroyama, 83, heard about Aerts' Senior Care Program she thought it was too good to be true. The day she called him, Aerts showed up at her door with a black briefcase filled with brochures about his no-cost special services to meet her immediate needs.

Two days after assessing those needs, Aerts and his handyman, Joe Licea, removed some overgrown plants in her backyard and re-potted others that were not growing in richer potting soil. Shiroyama had previously tried to maintain the foliage herself but said she just didn't have the strength. Aerts also gave Shiroyama a plant to brighten up the property from his own yard. This delighted her husband in his frail condition because he could see it from an upstairs bedroom window.

"It looks like a yard again," she said. "I was the only one in the neighborhood without a nice yard."

In addition, Aerts placed a door over an opening to her attic and installed smoke detectors throughout her townhouse.

But the service didn't stop there. Aerts' wife Bonnie, drove Shiroyama, to her tai chi classes at the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center. Shiroyama said the classes gave her a break from tending to her husband, who passed away this June. The couple had been married 63 years.

"I was so impressed and grateful that someone would care that much for me," said Shiroyama, wiping tears away from behind her dark, tinted glasses.

While she thankfully accepted the Aerts' help, Shiroyama said she is not normally accustomed to receiving goodwill, which is common among Aerts' clients.

"I don't like the word 'charity,'" Aerts said. "I always like to use the word 'community.' I like to say it's a community service, or I'm doing it for the community. There are a lot of clients who won't accept charity. But if it's a neighbor helping a neighbor it's okay."

Shiroyama has seen her quality of life improved and referred to Aerts as having "heaven-sent kindness," describing him as being sincere and truly interested in her day-to-day problems.

Shiroyama, a survivor of a Japanese internment camp, said she can rely on her children to an extent for assistance, but her daughter works full-time and her son's family lives out of the area in Morgan Hill.

As one of the services of the program known as "drives," Aerts arranges for reliable chauffeurs, including members of his own family, to take Shiroyama to her medical appointments. In doing so, Shiroyama said she has maintained her dignity, while saving hours of searching through the phone directory to find appropriate and sometimes-costly services. Aerts says they do three drives a day, waiting in the doctor's office and sometimes even making decisions so they won't be conned into buying unnecessary items.

Like many of Aerts' clients, Shiroyama didn't qualify for many services in the community because she wasn't disabled or in the low-income bracket. But Aerts program has no paperwork, qualifications, or cost.

The Senior Care Program—a free service to residents in Campbell, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, and Saratoga—is a privately funded and operated program by the Aerts family and doesn't receive support from any governmental agencies. And Aerts actively spreads the word about his program, visiting city council meetings, the Kiwanis and Lions Club and sending his brochures to the senior center.

Aerts guarantees calling his clients within 24 hours of their message. He sets up an initial meeting where he works to gain the client's trust and confidence, and then addresses safety needs. This can range from putting in grab bars on stairways, inserting peep holes in front doors or installing smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and clearly identified streets numbers outside the homes.

"We now get five to 18 calls a day," he says. "If they call and they reach out then I reach back and help.

The program services range from basic home maintenance and small repairs to teaching participants computer skills, driving them to the grocery store or taking them to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. He said "drives" performed with the assistance of his daughter-in-law, Jessica Aerts, can be considered easy for the average person but are often an entire day adventure for a senior citizen.

"The last and most important aspect of the program is getting them enrolled and back out in classes," Aerts said. "It's important for seniors to be around other seniors so they can get out of the house and stay mentally active."

Aerts said activities offered at local colleges, senior centers and programs around the county are useless unless senior citizens have a means to get to there.

The average client who uses the program is 75 to 85 years of age, female and lives alone. "Everyone of them is a unique and different case," Aerts said.

Originally he had thought if the program could help one individual it would be great. If he could help 10 people a year, it would be wonderful. Now, his program serves more than 75 to 100 clients, many of whom have become permanent clients.

When people ask Aerts why he is so passionate about the program, he said it comes from his roots when his parents struggled to make a living. But despite hard times, his parents were still as helpful and as generous as possible to everyone around them.

"We didn't have money. Believe me, we were not even middle class," he said.

Aerts recalled a childhood visit to his grandparents' 4,000-acre farm in Michigan. A neighbor's tractor and trailer flipped over on a two-lane, dirt road in front of the farm.

Immediately, all the surrounding neighbors rushed outside to lend a hand and remedy the accident.

"That's what it's all about. You help your neighbors. That's what I'm doing. It's not a big deal," he said.

Though a businessman himself, Aerts, who dresses more often in a T-shirt, jeans, and an old pair of sneakers rather than a suit and tie, says he tries to eliminate the business atmosphere of his program.

And he certainly doesn't think of himself as an angel. He is more of a family man, with two sons David, 16, and Ken, 24, and the owners of two gentle English Mastiffs—Jessie and Taylor. The extremely large dogs regularly accompany Aerts on his visits to convalescent homes. And the dogs are so docile they often help Aerts to start up conversations with senior citizens.

Helping senior citizens has taken the meaning of Aerts' life to a whole new level, but all he'll take for reimbursement is baked food.

"They bake cookies," he said. "They want to pay you back."

Often his clients don't even need major yard work. Instead, they're just looking for some conversation, which the disarming Aerts can easily provide.

"Sometimes the neighbor just needs someone to talk to," he says. "Some have local relatives but they don't do anything. That's very common. I'm just trying to be a good neighbor."

Beth Cunningham, 83, and her husband Bill, 86, live on Bancroft Avenue in Monte Sereno. Aerts put a grab bar on the front steps so the couple could easily climb up and down the stairs, and placed a house address number out front so it could be visibly seen from the road. He stayed for more than an hour on the first visit, making a list of needed repairs the couple couldn't normally afford.

"As you get older there's so much more that you can't do," Cunningham said.

Beth described Aerts as personable and genuine in his intentions to improve their home, which was built by Bill 49 years ago. Beth said her husband can't get up and down a ladder anymore or fix things around the house like he once could. The Cunninghams, who have been married 64 years, said they wouldn't be able to keep up the house without Aerts.

"I don't know how we'd get it all done without him," Beth said.

For more information about the program or to receive assistance, call 408.395.6636.

Staff writer Jennifer D. Shih contributed to this story.