Anna Clay: Go where most needed

From Texas to New York, daily devotionals keep nurse focused

By Aprille Hanson Spivey
Associate Editor

Coming off her fourth consecutive 12-hour shift, Anna Clay admitted to some “brain fog.”

“Well, at this point I'm kind of used to it. Unfortunately with COVID surging back up, our floor has been kind of short, so I'm trying to step up and help where I can,” the 28-year-old nurse said. 

She lives in Texas, working primarily with recovering surgical patients at Baylor Scott & White Surgery Center in Waxahachie.

“I’m actually getting my first (COVID) vaccine this afternoon ... I was never against the vaccine how some people are. I put it on the back burner. I finally decided to get it,” she said. “I just want to do my part and get back to living a normal life.” 

Clay, who attended Our Lady of Fatima Church in Benton since infancy, was a nurse for less than a year when the pandemic began, and she left to work at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City from April to July 2020. 

“I became a nurse just to help people, and this pandemic hit and it seemed like the prime opportunity to go do that,” she said. “I’ve always kind of relied on my relationship with God to guide what I need to do. When all this happened, I think everyone panicked, and if you don’t have faith to rely on, it’s kind of dark. I prayed a lot about it before I went because it was a big decision and a lot of uncertainties at the time; still are.” 

Clay keeps focused with daily devotionals. 

“I’d be having a hard time and open the book to the date and the reading would be specifically something I was struggling with at the time,” she said.

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