My mother, Claire Thomey, was born in and has lived and worked in New York all her life. She attended Hunter College and graduated as a Social Worker in the early 1950s. For the next 40 years she worked to ensure the rights of others. Claire worked for housing, education, medical care, and financial security for thousands of women, children, disabled people and elderly. The weak were never powerless when she was on their side. Her career started at the Irvington House and then New York Foundling Hospital and continued through Booth Memorial Hospital, where she worked with unwed mothers and St. Mary's Hospital for Children, helping handicapped children and their families. Assisting elderly New Yorkers in Queens, she was social worker at Little Neck Nursing Home, Bridgeview Nursing Home and finally, the director of the Katherine Sheridan Senior Center in Jackson Heights. After retiring, she volunteered at hospitals and in churches, and nearing 90 years of age, she still would do anything to help others solve problems and improve their lives. Claire Thomey is an inspiration to many and dearly beloved by her family, neighbors and friends. There is no more loving and generous soul on earth.