[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 120 (Tuesday, June 30, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E589-E590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HONORING DR. MOORE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. VIRGINIA FOXX

                           of north carolina-

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 30, 2020

  Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record 
this letter to honor Dr. Moore.

                     An Extraordinary Ordinary Man

       Madison, NC.--In full disclosure, I don't really believe in 
     luck, but if I did, I would have to say I won the mega-
     powerball lottery when I was born in the spring of 1981. This 
     premise rests entirely on the fact that God, in His great 
     mercy and goodness, predestined me to have two incredible 
     parents, Don and Sue Moore. Since it is Father's Day, I would 
     like to take a moment and reflect on my dad whom many 
     lovingly know as ``Dr. Moore.''
       As the middle of three daughters, I was without a doubt the 
     most challenging of the Moore girls and received more 
     disciplinary correction than both of my sisters combined. 
     Discipline was often administered by my mother because my dad 
     was working. Just to aggravate my mother, I would tell her 
     that the punishment didn't bother me. One can imagine my 
     mother's level of frustration with me. Yet, it was my dad's 
     authoritative words that prompted sincere reflection. For 
     anyone who knows my dad, they will know he has the most kind, 
     gentle and sensitive soul, but is equally firm and desires 
     others to improve under his ``care.'' So for me as a child, 
     his words not only called me to repentance, but more 
     importantly, urged me to become a better friend, daughter, 
     sister and ultimately, a mother.
       As a complement to this, my dad rarely missed an occasion 
     to remind us that we were beautiful and loved. There were 
     many times during my childhood and early adult years when my 
     dad would return from a long medical conference out of state 
     with the most beautiful dresses as gifts--each handpicked for 
     my sisters and me with the most exquisite eye. By bestowing 
     us with lovely things, he was reminding us how beautiful we 
     were to him.
       Growing up along the Mayo River, my sisters and I had many 
     adventures with my dad. As a little girl I was definitely the 
     tom-boy of the Moore girls. I enjoyed getting muddied in the 
     creek, hunting for crawdads under the rocks, and picking up 
     field mice for show and tell. Like my dad, I was always 
     curious and ready for adventure. I was my dad's ``right hand 
     man,'' clearing trails and highlighting nature's beauty for 
     friends and family when they visited us. Many people asked me 
     as a young girl whether my dad played golf regularly. I 
     laughed and would say no, unless you call a chainsaw or weed 
     eater a golf club. These were the tools he used, not to 
     manicure nature, but to clear it enough so others could see 
     its beauty. True and genuine beauty is an important quality 
     to my dad.
       One of my favorite memories as a child was in the early 
     fall of 1990. I vividly remember my dad and me waking up 
     early with the ambitious task of planting over 1000 daffodil 
     bulbs alongside, our family home. We were so motivated that 
     we easily planted another 1000 alongside our loop road. Over 
     thirty

[[Page E590]]

     years the blooms have multiplied yielding over 10,000 
     daffodils each spring. This proliferation of beauty in many 
     ways reflects the sensitive yet tenacious spirit of my dad in 
     his forty years of practicing medicine in Madison, NC. His 
     servant leadership has exponentially improved the lives he 
     has loved, prayed over, and had the privilege of caring for 
     over four decades.
       I know most little girls think of their dads as their 
     Prince Charming; however, I have to admit I have always 
     believed my father to be a superhero. I think there's very 
     little my dad is not able to do. Whether creatively giving 
     insight or executing new ideas, my father faces all 
     challenges with excellence. When my sisters and I had school 
     projects as little girls, he would assist with childlike 
     zeal, not to do the project for us, but to give us artistic 
     vision and insight into how to make it the most innovative 
     and well-designed piece. His perfectionism did not come with 
     judgment or criticism, but instead inspired us to think 
     outside the box and do all things exceptionally well.
       One of my dad's superpowers is that he is an animal 
     whisperer. There are more times than I can remember when an 
     animal on our property, wild or domesticated, would find 
     itself badly injured and my dad would heal them with his 
     adept medical knowledge. He has a particular love for swans, 
     and over the years, we have had upwards of twenty of them 
     reside on our pond. I distinctly remember carrying swan eggs 
     on the bus in an incubator and watching them hatch in my 
     classroom as a young child. My dad always encouraged us to 
     make observations and to care for animals with the utmost 
     concern. On several occasions we had swans with large gaping 
     wounds which he would pack and suture in our backyard. The 
     swans he would heal seemed to know that Dad loved them and 
     would protect them at any cost. To this day, many of them 
     will come right up to him and just lay their heads on his 
     lap. He's able to hold them with such tenderness and peace 
     that they will wrap their necks around his neck as if to say 
     ``thank you.''
       My sisters and I are the most grateful for the endless 
     educational opportunities my parents offered us. In fact, we 
     would often laugh when our parents wondered why jobs were 
     difficult to obtain upon our graduations. We would smile and 
     remind them that if they had only taken us to the beach 
     instead of museums while on vacation, we wouldn't have ended 
     up as history and art history majors. These trips were 
     prompted by my dad's love of education and his desire to be a 
     perpetual student and to experience new places and cultures. 
     Although we did visit the beach on occasion, it was important 
     to our parents that we experienced mmm educational, yet fun, 
     family togetherness.
       Community members, in fact, remember my dad well as an avid 
     learner as a young student. Always the inquisitive scientist 
     at heart with the vision and creativity of an artist, my now 
     seventy-year-old dad, was known as a youngster for his love 
     and care of animals and his tremendous organizational and 
     visionary abilities. These qualities were nurtured by his 
     parents, Leland and Lucille Moore, who worked respectively at 
     a family owned welding and service station and Gem Dandy. 
     They were quiet and kind parents of two sons. My dad's older 
     brother, Leland ``Butch'' Moore Jr., was a starting defensive 
     back at Catawba College and later served as an officer in the 
     U.S. Navy in Vietnam. My dad, seven years his junior, 
     however, was a renaissance man.
       There was truly very little he could not do as a child and 
     even less as an adult. He rode horses, he scientifically 
     categorized whole butterfly and insect collections, molded 
     images of friends with clay as an artistic pursuit and was a 
     straight A student throughout all twelve years of school 
     earning him the title of Valedictorian at Madison-Mayodan 
     High School. He attended UNC Chapel Hill majoring in biology 
     and was accepted at Bowman Gray Wake Forest School of 
     Medicine where he also achieved academic excellence as a 
     medical student. Upon graduation, my dad had many 
     opportunities presented to him that might have awarded him 
     more comfort and stability in life, but for my dad this was 
     not the primary goal. Instead, his heart dreamed of returning 
     home to care for the teachers, family members and friends who 
     had loved him and equipped him to pursue medicine.
       After nearly six years of wooing his high school 
     sweetheart, my dad finally convinced my mom to be his wife. 
     They were married the spring of his final year in medical 
     school and spent their honeymoon years in Roanoke, VA, where 
     my dad completed his three-year residency in family medicine. 
     With my mom and older sister in tow, he returned home in 1980 
     to the county and people he loved so dearly. Dr. Joyce, my 
     dad's predecessor, was aging and needed help with the growing 
     population of the Madison-Mayodan area. At the time, the 
     practice cared for just under 2,000 patients. Now, more 
     than forty years later, Western Rockingham Family Medicine 
     boasts over 15,000 patients.
       As a physician, he listens not only with his ears, but with 
     his very heart strings, always going above and beyond what 
     insurance would dictate to care for patients both young and 
     old. He always recommends the very best resources and 
     referrals to alleviate his patients' pain, but he will also 
     work diligently toward getting them answers. He walks with 
     them as if they were family through their emotional, 
     physical, intellectual and spiritual needs until they feel 
     completely at peace and confident with what they are facing. 
     Any patient upon entering his exam room can expect a 
     gigantic, warm hug and the sweetest and most sincere eyes 
     meeting their own gaze. For most, the healing starts the 
     moment they walk in. While his medical knowledge is first-
     class, his sincerity, authenticity, and willingness to go 
     above and beyond to care for others has been a mainstay of 
     his superpowers.
       It is certainly true that behind every great man is a great 
     woman so I'd be remiss without saying that my dad would not 
     be the man he is without my mom. Over the years she has 
     quietly and gracefully empowered my dad by advising and 
     praying for him, even as he sacrificed important moments with 
     our family to serve the greater community. In her own way, 
     and as a family, we've each sacrificed, but I know my mom's 
     has been the greatest. She has, humbly and with love, 
     encouraged him to provide the very best care for each and 
     every patient that walks into his exam room.
       My gratitude on this Father's Day for my dad, my hero, 
     really cannot be described in words. From his early years as 
     a great thinker and creative spirit to the present day, my 
     dad is steadfast and serves all who cross his path with love 
     and selflessness. In the world we live in today, he's a rare 
     gift, and if the very qualities of his heart could be 
     harvested by all of mankind, the ripple effect would 
     radically change the culture of our country. My dad is a man 
     whose heart is rooted in his faith in the Almighty, which is 
     the true and eternal source of his superpowers. My dad knows 
     that ultimate healing comes from our Creator and that my dad 
     is merely a humble instrument that God uses to care for those 
     He has entrusted to him.
       CS Lewis once famously wrote in his book, The Four Loves:
       ``To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and 
     your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to 
     make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, 
     not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and 
     little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in 
     the casket or coffin of your own selfishness. But in that 
     casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It 
     will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, 
     irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.''
       If you wish to see a life fully lived with genuine love, 
     look no further than my dad. He epitomizes Lewis' idea of 
     loving and serving others versus choosing a life of self 
     protection and insincerity. While the loss of beloved 
     patients, systemic changes in healthcare and decreased time 
     with our family have been challenging at times, the rewards 
     of providing compassionate medical care have produced 
     infinite beauty in my life and my family's life. Even more 
     so, this outpouring of love has extended to the lives of 
     those throughout Rockingham County and beyond. My dad will be 
     the first to say that his time as a physician has yielded 
     much more in his life than what he's invested. He credits 
     this entirely to the wonderful patients he's had the great 
     joy of loving and serving.
       There's not a day I don't think about my dad's prayer each 
     morning on our childhood rides to school. It was very simple: 
     he prayed he would be the very best doctor he could be that 
     day. In the same way, I thank God for the privilege of having 
     one of the very best of men guide me through this life.
       What a gift, what an extraordinary ordinary father.
       Thank you, Dad, for exemplifying what it means to live a 
     life well lived with humility, integrity and service to 
     others, a love that is so vulnerable that it is contagious to 
     all whom you encounter.

                          ____________________