Jun 8, 2026 By Katherine Mansfield 5 min read

Southwestern Pennsylvania was never meant to be forever, and though he no longer calls it “home,” Wyatt Larimer returns to the area more often than he expected.

“They bring me back to be the emcee of all their picnics,” laughed Larimer, 27, the Ohio director for Sunny Days In-Home Care, which recently held a summer event at South Strabane Park.

Larimer did not grow up dreaming of a career in in-home care. He was born near Youngstown and raised by his grandmother, Joanne. When his brother, a father figure who owned Sunny Days’ sister company (which no longer exists), moved eastward, Larimer followed.

“He brought me out from Ohio to start working for the company, learn the industry, and I quickly fell in love with it,” Larimer said. “It kind of took off: Recruiting, first, went right into management, and three-and-a-half years later, I got the director position.”

The work is as challenging as it is rewarding. Larimer stresses over staffing and client care.

“Our whole job, and the whole-only-reason we exist is to get them staffed with a caregiver and get them help,” he said.

Larimer hit a home run early in his career, when he was able to pair a young Washington & Jefferson College student with a caregiver.

“That was my first time ever staffing a young girl for a full 40 hours. You see a 21-year-old girl with cerebral palsy trying to make it, go to college, and she can’t care for herself. Then you match her with a caregiver that comes in in the morning, does her hair for her, gets her ready for class, and then goes to class with her. Her caregiver went to all of her college classes with her the whole semester, and still is with her to this day. They hit it off. That,” he said, “is rewarding for me.”

Larimer spent nearly four years working throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania, including Washington and Greene counties and the Mon Valley, and he’s thrown his whole self into the work. But the thread that weaves together Larimer’s life is a red, double-stitched seam.

He holds the record for career wins at his alma mater, where his career record is 26-2. Larimer led Western Reserve High School to its first state championship appearance, was the Northeast Ohio Pitcher of the Year his senior season, and was named All-State sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

Though college wasn’t his thing, when Kent State University came knockin’, Larimer couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play college ball.

“That was my dream school for baseball. That was the only reason I went to college,” he said.

Collegiate baseball led Larimer to reconnect with Maia, a girl from his hometown.

“We went to high school together, but she hated me in high school,” he laughed. “We became friends, and then just kind of became best friends. She ended up moving here to work here… for a home health company.”

They fell in love in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It was during his time in this area that Larimer planned the perfect proposal, disguised as his grandmother’s 80th birthday celebration – in Las Vegas, a place to which neither Larimer nor his bride-to-be had visited.

“I was like a CIA agent for a few weeks,” Larimer laughed. “I flew her family out without telling her. My family was there. I had to create the plan with my brother: He flew there two nights before, and he was at the Bellagio taking pictures … where I wanted to do it. The fountains went off at the exact time I proposed, so I had a good, good engagement.”

That day was topped only by Larimer’s wedding day, which will soon be topped by the birth of his first child, a daughter he and his wife will call Sophie Joanne, after Larimer’s grandmother.

Larimer is already madly in love with his little girl.

“I didn’t have a good father figure during the times that I needed it. He was definitely there at other times, but I want to make sure that I’m there for her during all the time she needs me,” he said.

Larimer is spending the last of his honeymoon phase (he and Maia celebrate one year married in August) by golfing with his wife, who recently hit her first birdie, he beamed, and developing a baseball app he’s jazzed about. He continues working to ensure his Sunny Days clients – in Ohio, now – receive the non-medical in-home care they deserve.

And, of course, Larimer keeps coming back to Southwestern Pennsylvania, where his adulthood began, a place for which he is ever grateful.

“I came from a small town out in the middle of nowhere. Moving here was a good wakeup call for me, especially at a young age, because it was just so much more fast-paced. It forced me to get out in the real world, myself. It was a blessing, for sure, moving away from home and getting into a big area. I needed it,” Larimer said. “It was definitely, definitely a blessing.”