Anderson, Alice (Sullivan) formerly of Watertown and Johnson Valley, California, October 1, 2021. Beloved wife of the late Ambrose Anderson. Devoted daughter of the late Edward C. and Margaret Sullivan. Loving sister of Edward C. Sullivan and his wife Kathy, Thomas Sullivan and his wife Geraldine, Eleanor Donato and her husband Anthony and the late Reverend Robert W. Sullivan SSJ, Margaret Mahoney, Lt. Paul J. Sullivan ( U S Army), Sister Eileen c. Sullivan SBS, and Stephen G. Sullivan. Sister-in-law of Stephen Mahoney and Marjorie Edson. Also survived by 15 nieces and nephews and 22 great nieces and great nephews.
Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Sacred Heart Parish, 770 Mount Auburn Street, Watertown on Saturday, October 9 at 9:00 a.m. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend. Visiting hours will be held at the Aram Bedrosian Funeral Home, 558 Mount Auburn Street, Watertown on Friday, October 8 from 4 – 7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Lt. Paul J. Sullivan Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 95, Watertown, MA 02471.
Due to the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, face masks will be required for everyone’s safety during the funeral service and visitation at the funeral home.
Alice grew up on Oxford Avenue on the Cambridge /Belmont line. She was the third of nine Sullivan children and the first girl. All the Sullivan children attended Sacred Heart School in Watertown. Certain events often change the course of people’s lives, and for the Sullivan children it was the death of their brother Stephen at only nine months in June of 1950. The pastor of Sacred Heart visited the family and asked what the plan was for the eldest child, Edward, who was graduating from Sacred Heart School. He was planning to go to Cambridge High and Latin. Father Brennan insisted he attend Boston College High School; and the other children then all followed, attending Catholic high schools
The family moved to Watertown in the summer of 1950; and, on Alice’s tenth birthday, December 1, 1950, the last of the Sullivan children was born. Alice always tells the story that she put a dime under the infant of Prague statue and, because of that, Eleanor arrived on her birthday and was a girl.
Alice attended Rosary Academy and graduated in 1958. All the children in the family had jobs in high school, and like several others Alice worked at Brigham’s in Belmont. It was then she met her life-long friend, Maureen Crotty Mello. When Alice was a teenager, she babysat for a young boy, Robert Crook. He became quite ill and was eventually hospitalized at Mass. General Hospital. Watching the nurses be so attentive and kind to him helped her to realize she wanted to be a nurse.
With a goal to go to MGH for her education, Alice worked for a year at Cox Engineering and saved to go to nursing school. Alice was a proud graduate of Mass General’s School of Nursing in 1962.
Venturing out to California, Alice found a job at Orthopedic Hospital, where she worked for four years, and volunteered in a clinic in Mexico. It was during this time she met Andy, who would eventually become her husband.
Alice returned from California to Massachusetts to help the family after the deaths of her brother Paul and her Dad. She then went to University of Maryland for her Bachelor’s degree. She returned to Massachusetts to work at the Kennedy Hospital in Brighton, where she became the Director of Nurses. It was during this time she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, which would have a profound effect on her health over the next 50 years
Every Valentine’s Day when she was back in Maryland and Massachusetts, she would receive a huge heart-shaped box of See’s Chocolates, as Andy tried to get her to move back to California. Love won out as she moved back to California in 1974. She worked for Los Angeles County Health Department in Watts. During this time, she earned her Pediatric Nurse Practitioner certification from UCLA.
Alice and Andy married in September, 1974, and eventually moved to Johnson Valley, California, in the Mojave Desert to the “Shack” that Andy had built. Alice continued her work in pediatrics, traveling many miles to provide child health clinics. Alice and Andy became very active in the communities of Johnson Valley and Yucca Valley. In 1984, Alice left the Health Department to become the Director of the Yucca Valley office of National In-Home Services. When that office closed, Alice created an innovative and successful home health program called Hi-Desert Home Health and Hospice. Alice ran the agency for 25 years before having to retire to take care of Andy, who struggled with Alzheimer’s.
Andy passed away in November of 2009. Alice remained in California for a time but then moved back to the East coast to Lexington, Massachusetts. While living there, she became active at St. Bridget’s Church and coordinated an Alzheimer Support Group. Her health limited her independence so she moved to assisted living at Neville Place in Cambridge. This past February, due to declining health, she moved to Belmont Manor. Her last illness brought her back to Mass. General. Somehow it seems fitting that, for her, it was coming home to an institution that had trained her to be the incredible nurse who impacted the lives of so many people.