Remembering Dr. Nola Mae Moore
From the Moore family
Nola Mae Moore, our fierce and beloved mother
Championed patient and physicians’ rights
She met dad on the bus to Army Reserve bootcamp
And practiced medicine with him for 30 years
Born in the kitchen of a 40 acre farm in Barron County, Wisconsin
She could be found with a cane fishing pole
Frogs in her pockets
And brother Duane by her side
Getting into trouble
When she was eight, polio paralyzed her dominant left hand
So she taught herself to write with her right
With a distinctive lefty slant
She became semi-ambidextrous
Which made her an excellent surgeon
When she was twelve
She and Duane made a set of wings
They climbed to the top of a windmill
And she jumped off
After winning a coin toss for the privilege
Of being the first one to fly
She broke her back
And was hospitalized for six months
But that fueled a passionate interest in medicine
Which defined the rest of her life
She was a physical force of nature
Rafting the Colorado River
Zip-lining through the trees on Camano Island
And heli-hiking in the Bugaboo range
In her mid-eighties!
Mom you may not have flown when you jumped off the windmill
But you flew the rest of your life!
Dr. Nola Mae Moore died of complications from Covid-19 on April 17, 2020. She was 88.