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Pleasant Sally leaves nursing home job at age 90

Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA) - 2/13/2016

Feb. 13--Sally Pleasants was walking down the nursing home aisle, cane in hand, when she spied a woman with white hair and an oxygen tube.

"There's my Edna!" the 90-year-old said, leaning slightly to wrap her arm around Edna Payne as she sat in a wheelchair.

Payne's face lit up, because she and Pleasants go way back.

They met about 20 years ago when Payne's mother was a patient at Woodmont Center in Stafford County and Pleasants was the admissions director there.

The friendship continued over time as Payne worked as a receptionist at the home and Pleasants was in customer service.

Then, life changed for each of them.

Payne became a patient, and Pleasants retired after 38 years of work.

But on a recent visit to the facility, Pleasants checked in again with friends, co-workers and residents younger than she is.

Pleasants strolled down each hallway, just as she did every morning for almost four decades.

"She is the heart of Woodmont," Payne said about her friend. "She makes each one of them feel like they're a personal part of Woodmont, and she always asks if there's anything she can do to help. She does anything she can to make them feel special."

Pleasants giggled like a schoolgirl, and her smooth cheeks blushed with color.

She doesn't like praise. What she's done for others, she's done "from the heart," she said, and the kindness has been repaid to her, tenfold.

"I just loved what I did," she said, "and the people at Woodmont were fantastic to me. Fantastic."

When she decided she would retire on Jan. 27, the Spotsylvania County woman didn't ask for a big to-do.

"I didn't want them to do anything at all, but I tell ya, it was a great party," Pleasants said, smiling. "The place was full. I got all kinds of gifts and baskets."

Some would say it was the perfect sendoff for the worker who was always so kind that a doctor used to call her "Pleasant Sally."

'CARING FOR PEOPLE'

Pleasants was 52 when two friends, a nursing home administrator and nursing director, were moving the Riverside Convalescent Center from downtown Fredericksburg to present-day Woodmont near the Chatham Bridge.

It was 1977, and Pleasants, who had worked as a school secretary and bank teller, was between jobs. Her friends asked her to help with the weekend move.

She did.

They asked if she could give a few more days to get things set up properly.

She did that, too.

Then her friends, who have since died, asked if she would be the admissions director.

Once more, she did, but her job went way beyond helping people fill out applications.

"She was always there, caring for people," said Jackie Sullivan, her friend of almost 50 years. "If she saw something a family member should know, she was on the phone, letting them know."

As time passed, people came to her door with concerns because "they knew she'd get it done," Sullivan said.

Pleasants' job eventually shifted to customer service, but she did the same thing over the decades, no matter her title.

Each morning, she popped her head into every room. She asked residents how they slept and how they felt. She fielded calls from concerned family members and even passed along her home phone number for after-hours reports.

When visitors came to Woodmont, she gave them tours. When adult children faced the task of checking their parents into a facility, Pleasants helped with that, too.

"This was all a brand-new chapter in my life, and I knew nothing about it," said Peggy Sale, referring to 2008 when she brought her mother to Woodmont. "Sally held me up, she supported me."

That support continued through March 2015, when Sale's mother died, and afterward, when the older woman filled the void in Sale's life.

"Is she on a pedestal in my book? Yes," Sale said. "If you are around her for a while, you'll see she's quite a woman."

'I HAVE NO REGRETS AT ALL'

Pleasants passed around a favorite quote to residents and co-workers. It encourages people to think, each morning, about what a precious privilege it is to be alive, breathe, think, enjoy and love.

"I tell people every day, if they'd stop complaining and count their blessings, they'd be 100 percent better off," she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "There are some people, if they were in the front seat of heaven, they'd want to be in the back seat. They're not happy anywhere."

Pleasants said she doesn't have a care in the world. She takes medicine for high-blood pressure and is a little hard of hearing, but is in great health otherwise.

She had caring parents, a fantastic husband, Alex, who died in 1985, and two wonderful sons. Charles died in 2011 at age 59. Bill, who lives in Fredericksburg, takes her wherever she needs to go because she doesn't drive anymore.

She also has two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

"I praise the Lord every day," she said. "I have no regrets at all."

Those who worked with Pleasants regret her departure. In her retirement cards, they called her an amazing advocate and a classy lady, an inspiration and a true treasure.

"Woodmont will not be the same," wrote Jennifer Muse, who works in admission, "without your smiling face and cheerful good morning."

Cathy Dyson: 540.374-5425

cdyson@freelancestar.com

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(c)2016 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)

Visit The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) at www.fredericksburg.com/flshome

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