Saluting Geraldine Singleton and Her Four Decades as a Partners in Care HHA

As we noted last month, of the 8,000 home health aides (HHAs) at Partners in Care, five of them have been with Partners in Care since it was acquired by VNSNY in 1983. This month, we salute another member of this distinguished group: Geraldine Singleton, who joined Partners in Care in 1979, and whose HHA career spans four decades.

Geraldine Singleton: “I Like Nothing Better than Seeing My Clients Thrive”

Looking back on her 38-year career as a Partners in Care home health aide, Geraldine Singleton fondly reminisces about the many people she’s cared for over that time. Her first client was Samuel, an elderly gentleman who lived in Astoria, Queens. A man of good cheer despite his heart and kidney problems, he loved smoking cigars and keeping up with the horseraces on radio and TV. Their relationship was one of mutual affection and respect, recalls Geraldine, and became one of shared interests, as well. “I didn’t know a thing about horseracing before caring for Samuel,” she says. “After working with him, though, I knew just about all there was to know about the sport!”

Like so many New Yorkers, Geraldine was born and raised somewhere else—in her case, the small town of Columbia, Mississippi. Her sister, Ruby, moved to New York City in the mid-1960s and Geraldine followed a few years later, taking a job maintaining medical records at a hospital. Meanwhile, her sister was directly involved in health care, working as a HHA for a competitor of Partners in Care. Eventually, Ruby urged Geraldine to apply for a HHA position. She did, and got the job. A few years later, Geraldine followed in her sister’s footsteps yet again, as the two siblings changed agencies and began working for Partners in Care. The year was 1979.

Today, almost four decades later, Geraldine is Partners in Care’s second-longest serving HHA. Throughout her career, Geraldine’s trademark has been the close bonds she forms with her clients. One client Geraldine remembers with special fondness is Sylvia, a grandmother originally from Barbados.  Sylvia lived in Elmhurst with her daughter, who had to leave for work each day and was concerned that her mother, who had diabetes and a heart ailment, was growing frailer for lack of an appetite. Enter Geraldine, who set about learning to cook the Barbadian food Sylvia loved. Before long, Sylvia was gaining weight, chatting enthusiastically with Geraldine about her grandchildren back in Barbados, and feeling more comfortable month by month. “Watching her regain her interest in living gave me great pleasure over the eight years I cared for her,” says Geraldine. “I like nothing better than seeing my patients thrive.”

Geraldine notes that she’s also grateful for the support provided by supervisors over the years who were quick to help her solve problems in the field. Last year, she finally scaled back her hours and began working only on weekends for a single client—Addie, a woman she has been caring for since 2012. A Southerner in her late 80s, Addie lives in Jamaica, Queens. On Saturdays and Sundays, Geraldine takes the subway from her home in Harlem and spends a six-hour workday in Addie’s home, preparing her breakfast, cleaning her house, occasionally taking her out to eat lunch or go shopping—and most importantly, notes Geraldine, “making sure she takes her medicine!”

“At my age, it doesn’t make sense for me to work full-time anymore,” adds Geraldine. “After all these years, though, I still like telling people I’m a Partners in Care home health aide. It makes me proud.”