On September 26th, 2022, Sarah Arlington Ball, known to her loved ones and the world simply as “Sally,” lost her two-year battle with metastatic breast cancer three weeks shy of her sixty-eighth birthday.
Sally was born in Washington, D.C., on October 17th, 1954, to Sarah Leigh Davis and Richard Charles Arlington. After graduating from High Point High School, Sally studied mental health and nursing at Prince George’s Community College. She received her A.A. in mental health and nursing in 1978 and launched a diverse forty-two-year-long career which ranged from Emergency Medicine to Intensive Care to Employee Health. She met her husband, Martin Andrew Ball, while working as an EMT in the rescue squad before nursing, marrying in 1983, and spent the next thirty-eight years raising three children to the background noise of over-the-top medicine anecdotes, HGTV, and dad jokes.
Sally was first and foremost an advocate for her patients, family, and friends. She was always willing to see the best in those around her, whether old friends or brand-new acquaintances. She was a ferocious and thoughtful gift-giver who would plan months in advance to find the ideal gift for her neighborhood mail carrier. She was an enthusiastic seasonal decorator, and her home was graced year-long with flowers and curios for every holiday (much to the joy of visitors and the chagrin of her husband, who had to help). A long-time Joe Walsh and Washington Capitals fan, she grew to love a variety of things over her decades, including Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, PINK, and Harry Styles. She was preceded in death by her elder brother and leaves behind her beloved husband, sister, daughters, son, grandchildren, and fleet of mischievous hummingbirds.
Her retirement dream of returning to watch whales in Alaska will be carried out posthumously by her family. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to METAvivor, and condolences can be mailed to 1880 Emmanuel Church Road, Huntingtown, MD 20639.
METAvivor Donation Link: https://donate.metavivor.org/give/318818/#!/donation/checkout
Condolences may be made to the family at www.mgfh.com.
