Saluting Jane Edwards and Her 35-Year Career as a Partners in Care HHA

For the past few months, Frontline has been profiling home health aides (HHAs) who have been with Partners in Care since its inception in 1983. This month, we salute the fourth member of this distinguished group: Jane Edwards.

 Jane Edwards: “I’ll Always Be Here for You”

Jane Edwards has been a home health aide (HHA) with Partners in Care since 1983. For 26 of those 35 years, she served as the dedicated night-shift aide for Valerie*. As Jane recalls, Valerie spent most of her time listening to classical music or audio books in her Manhattan apartment before she passed away last year at the remarkable age of 108.

“When I started working with Valerie, she could help herself a little bit,” says Jane. “But by the time she was in her late 90s, she had to stay in bed most of the time. I had to reposition her every two hours, but she never had a single bedsore.” If the body of this accomplished centenarian was weak, her sense of humor stayed strong. More than once, Valerie wryly asked Jane, “Did I tell you my body is a major inconvenience to me?” — to which Jane would reply, “Yes…but you know I’ll always be here for you.”

Jane had wanted to grow up and become a nurse from the time she was a girl in Port of Spain, Trinidad. After moving to Caracas, Venezuela at age 20, she decided to take an even bigger step and move to New York, inspired by friends who had also followed their dreams north. She arrived in the mid-1970s, and a Venezuelan immigrant who knew of her interest in caregiving told her where she could find work as a home health aide. Jane took the required courses at a Manhattan-based company and received her HHA certificate. In 1983, she switched companies to become an HHA with Partners in Care.

In addition to Valerie, Jane has cared for many short-term daytime patients. One of the most memorable was Jerry*, a veteran suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Jerry’s illness had advanced to such a degree that he only went without his breathing mask when Jane removed it at mealtimes. At one point, Jerry had to be hospitalized. He felt so comfortable with Jane and the fact that she knew how to reposition him in bed to keep his pain at bay, he arranged for her to care for him for the duration of his hospital stay.

Today, Jane, who lives in Crown Heights and has four children and six grandchildren, takes as much delight in her work as ever. She says she plans to keep working, and will only retire when she can no longer “give it my all.” She looks back fondly on the hundreds of patients she’s cared for, helping them cope with conditions ranging from quadriplegia to HIV. “I went into this line of work because I love making people comfortable and happy,” she says. “Knowing they really need me brings joy to my heart—and I know I bring joy to their hearts, too.”

*The clients’ names have been changed for privacy.