She was able to see him make it to Johns Hopkins just before she passed away.
A Johns Hopkins doctor now works at the same place his grandmother once cleaned, CBS Baltimore reports.
Dr. Nelson Malone first came to Johns Hopkins Medicine as a student, having no idea of the hospital’s connection to his own legacy. While there, he learned from his family that his grandmother Marion had once worked there, cleaning those same floors in the 1950s.
Originally living in rural Virginia, Marion came to Baltimore when she was about 20 years old in search of opportunity, landing herself a job as a housekeeper at Johns Hopkins making an honest living. Seven decades later, that little piece of hidden family history would motivate her grandson to keep striving on his path of becoming an emergency medicine doctor at that very same hospital.
“Most of the people who come from communities like I come from, you don’t see that often. We don’t see people making it out of these circumstances,” explained Malone.
Not only was Dr. Malone a first-generation high school graduate, but he was also a first-generation college and Harvard Medical School graduate, crediting his grandmother as his inspiration. It was his grandmother’s empathy, compassion and service that motivated him to follow his own dreams. When his grandfather was sick, his grandmother Marion stepped in as caretaker, ultimately influencing Malone’s decision to become a doctor.
“Seeing her be that care provider to him played a huge role in my decision to go into medicine,” Malone told reporters.
Marion unfortunately passed away in January of 2022. But before she passed away, she got the opportunity to see her grandson become a resident doctor at Johns Hopkins. Malone says it’s all the affirmation he needs and he’s grateful for the trail she blazed for him.
“I’m beyond sort of what my nana, probably most people in my family, would have imagined. And so it was a beautiful thing that you know, her very last year here, she got to witness me finishing medical school and starting my career,” said Malone.
Congratulations Dr. Malone! You’re making your grandmother proud!
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Nelson Malone/CBS Baltimore