“Every step I take toward success in life and everything, I hope my daughter does the same thing,” she says. “Everything I’ve done for my mother, I hope my daughter would do the same thing for me.” That philosophy speaks to Grey’s firm belief that one’s good deeds come back to reward them. It also informs her work with patients at the United Hebrew Geriatric Center in New Rochelle, NY, where she’s been a nurse’s aide for 11 years. Or as Grey articulates it, she recognizes “where they are now is where I am going.”

Her own journey began as a shy child in Jamaica with an innate passion for helping others. Grey knew from the time she was barely a teenager that she wanted to be a nurse. In 1996, she arrived in the Bronx to pursue that dream and began caring for geriatrics. It wasn’t long before the empathic aide realized that what her patients needed even more than basic medical supervision was an advocate, someone to ensure they were treated with dignity and respect. “There was a resident who needed glasses,” she recalls of her early days on the job. “She needed them even just to read the breakfast menu. I bugged a lot of people until she got those glasses. Everyone said [I acted] like she was my mother, but it’s really just about respect.”

That desire to change the systemic mindset of geriatric care spurred Grey’s application to Touro and subsequent path toward becoming a licensed social worker. While enrolled, she interned at another nursing center, where she encountered an 86-year-old, legally blind Jewish resident who was in need of complete assistance. Over time, the two forged an unlikely and mutual bond, one that cemented Grey’s deep commitment to ensuring peoples’ final years are gratifying and content. That patient sadly passed, but in a presentation to her class on end-of-life care, Grey reflected on that experience as “a true gift,” adding, “I have a better understanding of cultural competence and appreciation of the impact of faith.”

Now, with diploma in hand and more than a decade of formative interactions with patients and peers, Grey is ready to be an advocate on the highest levels. Specifically, she envisions opening her own facility in the not-too-distant future, where she can continue to promote compassion and respect, and keep setting that shining example for her teenage daughter.  “If I can own my own nursing home and have at least one resident that smiles during the day, my job is done,” she says. “If that person just tells me, ‘Thank you,’ to me that’s a job well done.