Mary's stroke: You can learn from her misfortune, healing

[River Falls Journal, October 14, 2011] She is well known as the outpatient surgical nurse at River Falls Area Hospital and, maybe even more so, as a founder of the Free Clinic of Pierce and St. Croix Counties. Mary Conroy Johnson has been married for 33 years to Dr. Bob Johnson, a longtime family practitioner at RFAH and an equally committed organizer and volunteer to the River Falls-based free clinic.

Mary is 59 and considers herself fit except for some arthritis. Yet on Aug. 19, while in Iowa to watch their son, a professional golfer, compete in a tournament, Mary was felled by a stroke that paralyzed her left side, cut off a slice of vision and garbled her speech.