By 1933, Anne's eyesight had deteriorated still further. Once again, the three women traveled to Scotland to help Anne gather her strength. While in Scotland, Anne suffered from an outbreak of carbuncles, a serious skin condition, further undermining her health. She was admitted to a hospital shortly after their return to the United States. During her stay in the hospital, Alexander Woollcott, drama critic and radio announcer, came and read to her. Influential men sought to come to her aid.

The letter in this image was written in 1935 by M. C. Migel to Robert Moses, the New York City Parks Commissioner. Migel requested the rerouting of trucks that were rolling loudly past Anne and Helen's Forest Hills home. Anne was convalescing and the noise and vibrations caused by the trucks were interfering with her recovery. The trucks were quickly rerouted.

Nella Braddy Henney quoted Anne as follows in her biography Anne Sullivan Macy:

I feel wretchedly conscious of the dreadfulness of age. Is any old person really happy I wonder. Of course they pretend to be, but if they ever remember what they were like once they must shudder inwardly. I hate growing old. Only youth and life at the full tide are beautiful. A less brutal deity would have decreed that life should end with the offspring, as the moth dies in the splendour of its beauty when it has laid the eggs of future moths.