MPTF Country Home cottage residents Alan and Sally Sloan faced an unexpected test recently when Sally fainted on the way to breakfast and hit her head. After a three-week hospital visit and rehab due to brain bleed, Sally is back on our campus at our Mary Pickford House for long-term care. Alan first proposed to Sally in 1959 under the New England moonlight, and they married the same year. Since then they’ve been inseparable, with his career developing from working as an advertising salesman for CBS and going to MIT for his PhD. Already trained in art at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, Sally worked as a book jacket editor at Doubleday and established herself as a respected professional artist with numerous exhibits around the country. Alan went on to work on many made-for-TV productions like producing Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries and Encyclopedia Britannica educational films. Prior to her injury, Sally was treasurer of the Resident Council (of which Alan has served as Chairman for two terms) and led an art class for other residents.
“We could all see she was in terrible shape,” Alan says of Sally’s condition after her fall. “It was difficult for her to talk, and her sense of taste and hearing was affected along with her memory. For the last four months, I’ve visited every day. Alix, our daughter (and also an artist), visits three or four times a week, and we’ve been doing exercises with Sally to help regain her memory.” Thankfully Sally has been showing great improvement. “She has a lot of visitors, and soon she’ll start to go to the movies, too. We’ve been married 63 years, and she’s an integral part of my everyday life. It was very difficult to see what she became after the fall, and it’s exciting to see her recover.”
