PATIENCE GRAY'S STORY
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Onyinye Patience Gray came to Buffalo from Nigeria in December of 2014. Her Igbo name Onyinye means 'God's Gift.'
She escaped a violently abusive marriage, and a situation where no one in her community, in her religion, would do anything to help her. She was considered the property of her husband and even when the police saw her bleeding they turned her away. Patience despaired and considered ending her life, but the thought of her sick daughter kept her committed to survival. When she escaped, in spite of the terrible situation she was running from, it was heartbreakingly painful to leave behind her family and everything she knew. She believed God would bring her through. She picked up her mind, she prayed and she kept her focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. When she arrived in Buffalo, her daughter, suffering from Chronic Sickle Cell Anemia, needed to be carried everywhere. Patience arrived with her at the VIVE shelter run by Jericho Road Community Health Center and was welcomed there. She received help, and persevered to build a life here and to get treatment for her daughter. Today she has remarried, has continued to grow her family, and has sent her now healthy daughter to college. Patience says she is glad to be in Buffalo, that it is peaceful, that it has brought her back together. Through her professional work and on her own time she does what she can to help others. She works with people who have disabilities. She reaches out however she can to refugee women to encourage them, remind them of the power of prayer, and cook for them. |
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