Grace Carr has studied, worked and volunteered at the same hospital her entire life, and at 97 years old, she has no plans to stop anytime soon.
Carr began training to be a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital (now known as St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, during World War II in 1944. She was just 17 years old.
“Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a nurse and work in a hospital,” said Carr, who as a child would spend hours playing doctor’s and bandaging dolls with her brother.
For the past 80 years, Carr has been a near constant presence at the hospital, affectionately known by staff as “The Heart.”
Carr left her job as a nurse at the hospital in 1989 and then worked in the hospital’s medical clinic for three years before retiring at age 65. She began volunteering at the hospital in 1993 after her husband, Edward Carr, died.
She has volunteered more than 6,000 hours, coming into work every Wednesday to give patients water, cheer them up with flowers, take them to tests and procedures and transport samples to the hospital’s lab.
“We call her Amazing Grace,” said Beth Vogel, a volunteerism specialist at the hospital who has known Carr for 20 years. “From the time she shows up in the morning until she leaves in the afternoon, she’s like the Energizer Bunny, always happy to help and just a lot of fun to be around.”
Carr said she had always planned to volunteer at the hospital after she retired. “I can’t imagine life without it,” she said. “I love the people there and I’m in good health, so I’m happy to help out in any way I can.”
Experiencing “the best and worst of life” at work
Carr grew up in Freeland, Pennsylvania, a small mining town about 50 miles from the hospital. After graduating from high school, she left Freeland to interned at Sacred Heart School of Nursing, living with other nursing students in a dormitory on the hospital’s campus.
As a student, Carr served as a nursing cadet: the government subsidized her nursing school tuition as part of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps, a program aimed at alleviating the wartime nursing shortage.
She received a salary of $15 per month for her first year, $20 per month for her second year, and $30 per month for her final year.
Carr began her career as a nursing cadet at Sacred Heart Hospital, where the government subsidized her nursing school tuition as part of the United States Nurse Cadet Corps, a program aimed at alleviating the wartime nursing shortage.
Photo: Grace Carr
In 1947, Carr graduated from Sacred Heart School of Nursing and married her high school sweetheart, Edward, who had recently returned from military service during World War II.
She was then hired to work the night shift from 11pm to 7am on the surgical floor at Sacred Heart Hospital, a position she held for nearly 20 years while raising four daughters and one son.
“Looking back now, I don’t know how I did it. I barely slept,” she says, “but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I love helping people and I was happy to be doing what I love.”
Rates of burnout are high in the nursing profession, and Carr acknowledges that she has experienced waves of stress and fatigue throughout her career.
“Working in a hospital you see both the best and the worst that happens in life,” she says. “Seeing people suffer and die from illness and realizing there is nothing we can do to help was really, really hard.”
But Carr says it’s the more joyous moments, like the birth of her baby and successful surgery, and the meaningful relationships she’s built, that have helped her get through it.
All five of Carr’s children and nearly all of his 12 grandchildren were born at Sacred Heart.
Her stepson, Vincent Barnes, was born at the hospital; Carr met him in the newborn unit a few hours later. “That little boy later married my eldest daughter, Janet, and is now in his 70s,” she says.
Carr’s daughter, Grace Rolling, said her mother inspired her to become a nurse.
Photo: St. Luke’s University Health Network
Moments like these inspired her to continue working at Sacred Heart. “It gave me a greater sense of purpose in life,” she says.
Carr’s passion is contagious: Her daughter, Grace Loring, worked in the pediatric ward at St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus for 35 years before retiring.
“I initially wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, but seeing my mother’s dedication and passion for nursing made me decide to pursue a career in medicine,” Rowling said.
She picks up Carr from his home in Allentown every Wednesday for her volunteer work and drives him to and from the hospital.
Her best advice for having a long and happy career
Carr says the secret to finding a job you love is “very simple”: work with people you love.
At Sacred Heart, Carr formed close friendships with many of her coworkers, including some of the nurses she started her career with. “We still meet up for coffee or dinner at each other’s houses and catch up,” Carr says.
Carrs’ career advice is backed up by 85 years of research by Harvard researchers, who found that positive relationships keep people happier throughout their lives.
This also applies to work: Research has found that the unhappiest jobs tend to be the loneliest and more independent than interpersonal.
“Good relationships at work are linked to lower stress levels, better worker health, and fewer days when employees go home feeling irritable,” researchers Robert Waldinger and Mark Schultz write in their book “The Good Life.”
When she’s not volunteering, Carr enjoys reading, gardening, spending time with her family and watching “Law & Order.”
But over the past 30 years, her favorite pastimes have remained the same: delivering flowers to patients and catching up with friends who work at the hospital.
“To me, nursing is not a job, it’s a calling,” Carr says.
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