Grace Carr, a longtime employee and volunteer at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital-Sacred Heart who was affectionately known as \u201cAmazing Grace,\u201d has died.<\/p>\n
Carr of Allentown, who turned 99 in July, died Oct. 27<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are saddened by the passing of St. Luke\u2019s Hospital\u2013Sacred Heart volunteer, Grace Carr, 99, a beloved member of the St. Luke\u2019s Sacred Heart family whose extraordinary legacy of service spanned eight decades,\u201d St. Luke\u2019s said in a Facebook post<\/a>. \u201cGrace was part of Sacred Heart\u2019s history, but more importantly, she was part of its heart. We extend our deepest sympathies to her family, friends and all who had the privilege of knowing her.\u201d<\/p>\n Responders to that post recalled Carr\u2019s self-sacrifice, helpfulness and as a \u201cshining example of extraordinary nursing care and a patient, supportive teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n A native of Freeland in Luzerne County, Carr was just 17 years old when, in 1944, she signed up as a nurse cadet trainee with the Army. The government paid her tuition on the condition that, when she graduated, she would work for a public institution. This brought her to the then-independent Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, where she graduated from the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in 1947.<\/p>\n During a 2024 interview with The Morning Call, Carr said even as a child she would always play hospital and never imagined herself doing anything else. She spent more than four decades as a nurse at Sacred Heart, before retiring to take care of her ailing husband. She began volunteering in 1993 after his death, contributing more than 6,000 hours in service to the hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the time I was a child, I was always playing hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cMy kid brother got to be the patient, which he wasn\u2019t too happy about.\u201d<\/p>\n