4. My Parents – My Inspiration

On April 16, 2023, Fletcher Academy, which is a small independently owned Seventh-Day Adventist boarding academy in Fletcher, North Carolina dedicated a newly built outdoor pavilion to my father and our family. This was in recognition of my parents’ dedication and the sacrifices they made to that community in the course of their lives. The following is a speech I gave at the event. I recalled historical information as well as memories from my childhood. While the information is specific to that community, I think one can gather the extraordinary example of service I was shown by them.

Seventy years ago, Dr. PJ Moore, Jr. and his wife Dora Deanne were asked by a small, independent, self-supporting Seventh-Day Adventist institution to move to the rural mountains of Western North Carolina.  The medical facility known as Mountain Sanitarium was in financial distress and on the verge of losing it’s accreditation. Without a physician to bring in patients, it would have to close.  If the sanitarium closed all the other entities of the institution would have to close too.  That included a school of nursing, a boarding academy, Captain Gilmer Elementary School, and several small enterprises like a dairy farm, a printing press, a community store, a laundry service and maybe others as well.  Dr. Moore was in the process of building his surgical practice in Pickens, SC and they did not think it was in their best interest to move to a financially unstable place.  So, they put a fleece out as Gideon of the Old Testament did, to get a definite sign from God seeking His guidance.  They decided that if the institution found another physician to join him, they would know God wanted them to go to this place.  They felt certain they would not be moving to the mountains, but they were wrong.  Dr. Arthur Pearson agreed to go to Mountain Sanitarium so Dr. Moore and his wife and three boys, along with his office nurse, MaryEllen Chapman and her mother, Mrs. Richardson moved to this area in May 1953.  

The first day he saw patients, he saw two people and both had been his patients in Pickens who followed him to the mountains.  Though it was slow going at first things did pick up and the institution began to grow and flourish.  It was hard work with long difficult hours.  His responsibilities went far beyond being a surgeon as he served on several boards, at one point he was the President of the institution during a time when that position was vacant, helped on many fundraising committees and filled many other roles all while doing his duties as a physician.  He got the medical facility renamed to Mountain Sanitarium and Hospital to facilitate insurance billing.  He oversaw the building of a new medical office facility and a new hospital building called Fletcher Hospital.  By the time Park Ridge Hospital was being built he was retirement age.  It was at this point that it was bought by the Seventh-Day Adventist church organization.  It is now known as Advent Health Hendersonville.  

Since he was the only surgeon on staff, he literally was on call 24/7.  He put an amplifier on a phone that had a jack in the carport so the ring could be heard from anywhere on their seven acres of property.  When it would ring, we would run to pick it up and answer – “Dr. Moore’s residence.  Who would you like to speak to?”  He delivered babies, did C-sections, took out tonsils, set bones, did skin grafting, performed all manner of general surgery and did lots of general medicine practice.  There were few vacations or weekends away.  His income was structured so that a large percentage went back into the institution and upon retiring from his practice he had no retirement money.

Dee and PJ as they were affectionately called, added two more children, a daughter and a son, to their family after they moved to the mountains.  With PJ devoting so much time to his responsibilities that left Dee to manage the home by herself.  They had met during WW2 where he was a Captain as a surgeon and she a First Lieutenant as a nurse.  She was a farm girl raised on a dairy farm in Ohio and he a city boy raised on the streets of Spartanburg.  She was not raised in the Seventh-Day Adventist faith but was raised with solid Christian beliefs.  They seemed to be an unlikely match until you find them in this rural, mountain setting.  He was the brilliant surgeon and physician and she the farm girl well equipped to manage life in this isolated, rural setting.  She eagerly accepted the Seventh-Day message. This included adopting the practice of keeping a 24 hour Sabbath from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset, as a holy day. It also meant lifestyle changes though not required by the church yet widely practiced by the church which included among other things, eating a vegetarian diet and abstaining from caffeine. They believe in having a personal daily relationship with God and obeying His directives in their life. So they embraced their calling to rescue this faith-based community.  She grew a garden, home preserved the fruits and vegetables it produced, knew how to sew and mend clothes, learned to cut the boys hair and could do anything a mountain woman needed to know how to do.  After they built a new home just a little way down Howard Gap Road from the schools and hospital, she cleared the land, landscaped the grounds and turned their home into a community park for the residents and children of the area.  The huge front lawn served as a ball field for many a game of baseball or football.  There was a badminton court in the drive with regulation appropriate lines.  He built a large swing set and had a horse shoe rings setup.  For many years they hosted the annual picnic at their place. She worked hard for weeks ahead to make it just perfect for people to enjoy the event.  They had a literal farm with horses and ponies that people got to enjoy petting or riding.

 Many a Saturday night the student nurses or academy students might be found at their home for games or supper.  The student nurses benefited from movies he took of his surgical procedures and used for learning opportunities.  She offered haircuts to academy boys or even some of the men in the area for only 50 cents a cut.  There were many times when people would show up at the house seeking medical care and if Dr. Moore wasn’t home Dee filled in to provide the advice or care needed.  It seems there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do to help the residents of this neighborhood.

Then Dr. Moore found a pawn shop selling off band and orchestra instruments.  He called Dee and asked if he should get them.  She told him to get all of them.  Then she started making calls to families asking if their child would like to learn to play the violin, trumpet, trombone, or other musical instrument.  Though she had never taken lessons on these instruments except for the violin, she offered lessons to get them started.  Soon a small orchestra began in their basement.  The students took off with their musical talents and soon outpaced her ability to teach them.  The school decided to hire a band and orchestra leader and Fletcher Academy became the school of the Southern Union of Seventh-Day Adventists with the best musical program. 

She often took her brood to the local lake here on campus to swim.  Usually, it was after we had done our chores but one particular day, it was in the morning.  She would sit on the sandy beach of the far side of the lake with an inner tube beside her keeping careful watch over her children.  There were two academy girls swimming in the beach area who had come to the lake on their own.  One of the girls was not a good swimmer and got out from the shore a little too far where the water was over her head.  All of a sudden, I saw mom race toward the water and go in with all her clothes on inner tube in hand.  She reached the girl and rescued her back to the shore.  No fuss was made.  There was no special mention of this act.  It was just mom doing what mom did – taking care of anyone in need.

The school had an apple orchard on the gentle hill behind our house.  We Moore kids enjoyed playing in that orchard both climbing the trees and eating the apples produced.  From the first little green orbs to the sweet red, yellow and golden ripe apples we helped ourselves.  Every year mom would pay the school for a bushel of apples to pay for all the apples we and our friends consumed.  

When I was in the eighth grade, the mother of one of my girlfriends was seriously injured in a car accident.  Mom knew that Kathy’s mother would not be able to care for her so invited Kathy to stay with us until her mom was well.  Kathy stayed for several weeks.  I remember the day Kathy called mom from the school to tell her she made 100% on her spelling test.  It was a first for Kathy and it was because mom spent time helping her learn her words.  But while Kathy was the first young person to stay at our home she wasn’t the last.  Mom took in over 20 young people into their home so they could attend Fletcher Academy.  She gave them a room, took them to their classes or work, cooked food for them, washed their sheets, helped with homework and treated them like any of the Moore kids were treated.  

The campus and grounds of this Seventh-Day Adventist community look very different today than what I remember as a child.  We used to have church in the little chapel and I do remember the bell tower where the cafeteria is.  But just about everything else was added after my parents came in 1953.  I witnessed Pearson Hall, the new Captain Gilmer Elementary school building, the academy administration building, girls dorm, boys dorm, Lelia Patterson Center, Fletcher SDA church, Advent Health Hospital and office buildings, Fletcher Park Inn, and the many neighborhoods that have all been developed and built since they arrived.  I can’t even imagine how many lives have been affected and changed due to the life of service in answer to the calling God gave them.  I have many times referred to Dee and PJ Moore, my parents, as the two most incredible humans I have ever known and I will always feel that way.  How fitting it is to dedicate this structure to them.  Together they were a formidable team with him the leader and prominent figure ministering in a formal way.  She was the quiet force behind him who ministered in an undercurrent but with just as much force.  She was the gardener and outdoorswoman who would be so happy and proud of the efforts to maintain a farm, reconstruct a little lake, have walking trails and this shelter to unite the school and community together.  They would be honored and humbled by this tribute.  My brothers and I are so very grateful that they will be remembered for their contribution to the preservation of the vision of the early pioneers at the turn of the 20^th century who decided to found a faith-based community dedicated to serving God here in this setting of the mountains of Western North Carolina.

 © Copyright 2023. Lucretia Pintacuda. All rights reserved.