Honoring Our Colleagues Lost to COVID-19: A Salute to VNSNY Partners in Care Home Health Aide Jadah Bey
The heroism shown by the staff of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York in tremendously challenging times is legendary. From the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the polio outbreaks of the mid-20th century, to the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s and the devastation of the 9/11 attacks and Superstorm Sandy, VNSNY’s courageous women and men have always been there to provide care and comfort to New Yorkers in troubled times, despite the risk to themselves.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Over the past several months, we have been working tirelessly and with unsurpassed determination under incredibly difficult circumstances so that our patients and plan members can continue to receive the care they need. Many of our colleagues have been stricken with COVID-19 themselves. Thankfully, most of them have recovered and many have even returned to work. Sadly and tragically, however, twelve of our coworkers have died. They include nine home health aides with Partners in Care, a physical therapist with VNSNY Home Care, a social worker with VNSNY Hospice, and a behavioral health nurse from VNSNY Home Care.
“These VNSNY heroes dedicated their lives to caring for others, and their contributions will never be forgotten,” says VNSNY President and CEO Marki Flannery. “We will remember them, honor them, and celebrate their lives.”
Jadah Bey
Jadah Bey, a Home Health Aide with Partners in Care since 2015, passed away from COVID-19 in mid-June. Melanie La Rose, a Home Health Aide Supervisor at Partners in Care, fondly describes Jadah as a “very petite person with plenty of energy to go around!”—adding, “She was very dedicated, very detail-oriented, very organized, and just had lots of professional wisdom.”
When it came to Jadah’s work, says Melanie, “All her concerns were around her clients.” As an example of Jadah’s dedication, Melanie recalls, “she once had a death in the family in Florida, and she flew back on a Saturday night instead of staying the weekend, so that she could work on Sunday.”
Most recently, Jadah had spent every weekend over the past three years caring for the same client. “When I spoke to the client’s granddaughter about Jadah’s passing, she was very emotional,” says Melanie. “She didn’t know how she could break the news to her grandmother.”
“She was my best friend and we did everything together,” says Jadah’s daughter, Klaudia. “We even graduated from college together in 2015, my mom from City University’s College of Technology, and me from NYU.”
Jadah also “loved taking care of people,” says Klaudia, who is a registered nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “She must have babysat for every child in her building. She also loved being a home health aide. After she graduated from CUNY, friends kept asking her why she didn’t get a job at a hospital, but she just didn’t want to.”
Klaudia notes that her mother, who came to the U.S. from Jamaica in the early 1970s, recited a poem of affirmation to herself every day. “The poem is called ‘Film Star’ and over time she started calling herself a film star,” Klaudia remembers with a laugh. “She was a very confident person!”
Jadah lived in Brooklyn. In addition to her daughter Klaudia Bey, she is survived by her granddaughter Syniah, her grandson Josiah, her son-in-law Tayshon Quivers, and five brothers and four sisters.
If you would like to make a donation in Jadah’s memory, please click here to visit the family’s GoFundMe page. If you would like to submit a special story or remembrance about Jadah, please send it using the Contact Us page on Frontline. We will post these responses as they come in.
