A stroke of therapy
for Sid

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

When Sid Sklar was recovering from serious injuries as a result of a 1991 car accident, the therapists at MossRehab suggested he play pool or other games as part of his rehabilitation.
When Sklar asked for other suggestions, the therapists mentioned painting.
"I said, ‘I don’t know how to paint,’ " he recalled.
Nevertheless, Sklar began painting at age 65. His works were so good that he sold 50 of them and won awards for a few. He kept some others.
People asked where he learned his talent.
"They’d say, ‘You had to have lessons,’ " he said.
No, Sklar never had any formal training.
"I’ve got a good imagination," he said.
Today, at age 80, his fingers and hands don’t allow him to be as precise as he’d liked with his paintings, so he’s begun to focus on portraits.
Since moving two years ago to the Glendale Uptown Home (formerly the Golden Slipper Health and Rehabilitation Center, and before that, the Uptown Home for the Aged), he has completed 90 portraits, many of nurses and nurses aides and their children and husbands.
The recipients like the portraits because they’re professionally done and free.
"I don’t charge anything," Sklar said. "To me, it’s therapy."
Every other Tuesday, Sklar travels to the Delaware Valley Veterans Home at Southampton Road and Roosevelt Boulevard to work with residents on portraits of their own.
The veterans seem to be catching on to the concept. "Each week, you can see how they’re progressing and getting better and better," Sklar said.
While it’s quite a feat for a senior citizen with no art training to become an accomplished artist, it’s even more amazing considering his background.
At age 13, Sklar temporarily lost his sight. Two years later, he was referred to Dr. Ramon Castroviejo, a New York surgeon who was developing the first corneal transplant surgery. The doctor used a rectangular, rather than a circular, "window" in the cornea.
Castroviejo told the teenager he had "nothing to lose and everything to gain."
"I was his guinea pig," Sklar said.
Sklar had the landmark surgery on Sept. 17, 1941, and stayed for two and a half months at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
The surgery, which used the cornea of a stillborn baby from Buffalo, resulted in 20-20 vision. Sklar has maintained sight in his left eye, but the right eye twice rejected the implant.
Still, Sklar is grateful to be able to see after the devastation of losing his sight.
"God bless the doctor," he said. "All the patients felt he was God because of what he did for us."
Sklar continued to see Castroviejo at his office and caught a glimpse of some of the renowned doctor’s other patients — philanthropist John Paul Getty, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and King Farooq of Egypt.
In appreciation of the successful surgery, Sklar began to volunteer at rehabilitation centers, veterans hospitals and a corneal transplant support group.
Sklar lived on Stevens Street in Oxford Circle for 48 years. He has three children and two grandchildren. His wife of 58 years, Terry, died last October.
For most of his professional life, Sklar owned a full-line vending company that catered to colleges, turnpike interchanges and state police barracks in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He also served time in the U.S. Army.
In 1988, he sold the business and took a job as a turnpike toll collector to earn extra money for retirement.
One day, in April 1991, he was walking across the narrow lanes between booths at the Philadelphia exit. He and a driver made eye contact, but the motorist inexplicably sped up and hit him.
"I jumped back and spun up in the air," he recalled. "He ran over me and got away."
Sklar broke bones in his legs, needed two knee- replacement surgeries and suffered injuries to his spine and neck.
Since the accident, employees must wear bright yellow or orange vests. Also, cameras have been installed.
Over the years, Sklar has also had a stroke and heart attack, fell out of bed and was dropped on his head by an ambulance worker.
"I’ve been through a lot," he said in an understatement.
Yet, he hasn’t let anything keep him down and is an inspiration for residents and employees of the Glendale Uptown Home, located at 7800 Bustleton Ave. in Rhawnhurst.
Despite his eye problems and other medical conditions, he’s had a pilot’s license and driven all over the country and parts of Canada and Mexico in a recreational vehicle.
"You learn how to compensate," he said. "It never stopped me from getting around."
Many of Sklar’s paintings feature water, nature, country scenes and lighthouses.
"I painted lighthouses from Maine to Key Biscayne, Fla.," he said.
During one trip to Maine, he positioned himself across a waterway from President George H.W. Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport. As he looked through binoculars to see what he wanted to paint, the Secret Service approached him, wondering what he was doing.
Members of the security force later brought him coffee and doughnuts. Good thing they didn’t look inside the RV, or they would have seen the shotgun Sklar kept for protection.
Then, there are simpler scenes. One day, he looked outside the window in his room at the Glendale Uptown Home and sketched the Northeast Apartments building across the street.
The crippling auto accident, the eye problems and all of the other physical ailments Sid Sklar has experienced haven’t kept him from making a lot of people — including himself — happy with his paintings and portraits.
"I have a ball," he said. "I love it." ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com