A young nurse walked into Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy in 1976 on her first day and 50 years later, she’s still there.

An emergency room nurse known simply as “Aunt Joann” is celebrating an extraordinary 50th work anniversary. Colleagues describe her as the heart and soul of the hospital.

Over the decades, Aunt Joann has been there through some of the nation’s most challenging moments. She helped care for patients in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and worked through the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

She even considered retiring in 2020, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she chose to stay, continuing her work on the front lines during an unprecedented crisis.

Joann says all she ever wanted to do was take care of people and for half a century, that’s exactly what she’s done.