Grandma Claire

Claire Emma Schluter Porter, a woman who worked as a foster grandmother to thousands of children, died on Oct. 20 from a pulmonary embolism. She was 89.
Porter graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1932, married and spent most of her life raising her three children. At 61, Porter decided it was time to start her “career” as a caretaker at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Five days a week for 22 years, “Grandma Claire” spent two hours taking four buses to the hospital. Once there, she fed sick children and rocked them when they cried. She cradled the injured and abused and played games with the kids to raise their spirits. For her efforts, she received a small stipend and several awards.
“She could communicate with the children at their level. She would gladly drop everything to play a game with them or to give herself. She really had a camaraderie with them,” said her daughter Karen Peart.