“Amazing Grace” Turns 97 After 80 Years with St. Luke’s Sacred Heart

Grace Carr (née Malloy) set out from the small town of Freeland in coal country at the age of 17 to become a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown in 1944. World War II was still raging. She has been with Sacred Heart ever since.

For the past eight decades, “Amazing Grace” has either trained, worked, or volunteered at the hospital, now St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus. It has been a journey filled with many years and memories, both personal and professional.

Grace, who turned 97 on July 4, still volunteers each Wednesday at the hospital. She keeps coming back because,

“As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a nurse,” the 1947 graduate of the Sacred Heart School of Nursing said proudly. She got married, started a family, and never thought of leaving the hospital at Fourth and Chew Streets in downtown Allentown.

All five of her children, and nearly all of her grandchildren, were born at “The Heart,” as it’s affectionally called.

Grace retired at age 62 to take care of her ailing husband and began volunteering in 1993 after he passed away. She has logged more than 6,000 hours as a volunteer—always on Wednesdays. Her tasks include taking specimens to the lab, escorting patients to tests and procedures, and delivering water and flowers to patients.

One of her most memorable patients was the newborn son of a fellow nurse in the nursery. “He’s now my son-in-law,” Grace says with pleasure. “Who knew that would happen?”

She aspires to continue serving the hospital as its oldest volunteer ever, playing an integral role in its 100-plus-year history of caring for the community’s sick and injured.

“Keeping busy keeps me going,” she said. “I’ll keep coming back here as long as I’m able.”