Dorothy ‘Dottie’ Christman Moore
6/11/1948 – 10/22/2023
Once upon a time there was a skinny
little blonde girl from Mississippi with the sweetest smile and the prettiest
blue eyes. Dottie grew up in New Holland
(Gainesville), GA and later in West Caldwell, New Jersey. There, she was close
to the big city, and loved everything NY, from the newspapers, which she read religiously,
to her beloved Yankees. She was
devastated when her family moved back to Georgia, but she soon adapted to a different
lifestyle in Atlanta. She went to
boarding school at St. Catherine’s in Virginia and made several lifelong friends. There are numerous stories about her
practical jokes at St. Catherine’s – like putting Saran wrap on the house
Mother’s toilet seat, setting alarm clocks in the other girls’ rooms for all
hours of the night, several cafeteria pranks, and many others. In 1965 she was invited to spend the summer
with one of her West Caldwell friends’ families in Egypt. She had so many
stories from that experience that when her nephew Ben asked her for details,
she wrote him a book – “Memories of Egypt”.
After HS, Dottie graduated from the
University of Georgia with a degree in French Literature, which she often told
people did her zero good in finding a job. Her language skills, musical talents
and interests were varied, and she was never afraid to try new things. She played the piano, guitar and banjo, on
which she accompanied her sister and cousin when they performed as a singing
group - mostly at local hotels for as much Blue Nun wine as they could drink. Later, when she finally got serious about working,
she joined Western Electric and became an auditor in a male dominated
profession. Her travel stories from that
time included mishaps surrounding her dog Toto and her cat Kitty. After
Divestiture, Dottie moved to Florida where she worked for American Bell, AT&T
and eventually Lucent Technologies where she met her future husband, Jim Moore.
Dottie’s friends and
family were always amazed with her ability to recall so many stunningly
detailed stories. Those entertaining
stories consisted of her outrageous misadventures with hilarious twists, as
well as some hard-fought life lessons learned.
She posted many of these on FB, “shish-ka-poop”,
“screw stew”, and “taping ants to the wall”, just to name a few. If you get an opportunity, go to Dottie’s FB
page and read some of her old posts, it’s a delightful way to reacquaint
yourself with her. And speaking of
names, Dottie named everything she owned or had around the house; cars, statues,
dog toys, her wheelchair, even Q-tips (those were “bug getter-outers”) used for
fishing bugs out of her wine glass. She
also had nicknames for anyone close to her – in HS her friends were Chef, Jolly
& Skindy. Her sister was Pohey, her best friend was Ethel, and she was Lucy,
I was always Sweetie. All of these and
many more, had delightful stories behind them.
She also had a habit of saying one word when she meant to say another, I
believe that’s called a malapropism. Some
of those words were definitely not PC. Like
the time she told someone “Hi, I’m so glad you’re black”, instead of ‘back’. However, no one ever got mad at her for these
Faux Pas. In fact, it was part of her
charm, and everyone loved her – everyone!
When she was younger, people often mistook her for Barbara Streisand,
and she even won 1st place in a lookalike contest. Dottie always put herself out there and as
mentioned, she was never afraid to try new things. Like building a house in a part of Orlando,
which at the time was in the middle of nowhere.
No neighbors, just she and her dog Toto.
A few years later she decided to sign up to run a Marathon with the 1st
Track Shack group. The seasoned runners just
shook their heads at these Long-Distance runner wanna-be’s. But Dottie and her new friends prevailed,
and she ended up running 3 Marathons, including the very 1st Disney
Marathon. Her running partner for those races
ended up becoming her best friend, Sharon. whose daughters grew up knowing her
as Aunt Dottie.
Dottie and her pets had always lived alone, but she made the male
roommate adjustment after we became a couple.
She often said that she’d dated a lot of losers before she met me, so I
guess we both came out on the plus side with that arrangement. However, what really tested her isolationism a
few years later, was when my teenage son, Neal, came to live with us. That transition was very difficult for her,
and she often referred to herself as his ‘Step Monster’. The 1st week he was with us, he
fell off his skateboard and broke his arm.
Dottie’s response – ‘Send him back, he’s broken’. Her humor was always in evidence, and it was
one of the things that endeared her to everyone.
Before Dottie became wheelchair bound, she loved to
travel. She planned spectacular trips
for us here and abroad. We traveled the
Pacific Coast highway and spent a week touring cities along the way and in the Napa/Sonoma
wine country, Seattle was another favorite destination as was a train/cruise
vacation in Alaska where she took a helicopter ride and walked on a glacier. Another great trip was with her company when
we went to Phoenix and Sedona. While
there, she even piloted a glider with an instructor. On the east coast we enjoyed time in NY City,
Philadelphia, lower slower Delaware with my parents, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head,
St. Augustine, and of course all-around Atlanta. Our foreign travels took us to Ottawa, London,
France, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Australia (including the Great Barrier
Reef). When we were in St. Maarten we
visited a jewelry store where the proprietor showed us an exquisite diamond ring. We went next door to a local establishment and
decided over a couple of Heinekens to buy that engagement ring and get married.
28 years later, we never regretted that decision. The last trip she took was on the Royal
Scotsman, an Orient Express Train which started in Edinburg and toured the
entire country from Loch Ness to several ancient castles to Scotch
distilleries, and finally to the Queen’s Royal Yacht. One of the ways she liked
to remember each trip we took was to purchase a piece of local artwork. She used these to decorate the house with a
very eclectic mix of paintings, sculptures, and other memorabilia. All these
disparate pieces somehow fit the personality of our house quite nicely.
Dottie loved Nature and animals, especially dogs and birds. When
Toto passed away, she took me to an animal shelter where we selected a shy
rescue dog named Ginger. We have had several other dogs since then, but Ginger
and Dottie were inseparable. They joined
a local church group called ‘Canine Crusaders’ and trained together to learn
how to visit and interact with seniors in Nursing Homes. Her other passion was birds, she had more
books about birds than we had room for on the bookshelves. When we were in Australia at a rainforest
sanctuary, a one-legged Lorikeet landed on her shoulder, kissed her cheek and
said ‘Hello’ in her ear. She really
wanted to bring him home, but then she also wanted to bring home a wallaby. Back home, sans foreign wildlife, she read
that if you put an Owl box up high in a tree away from the streetlights, that
eventually, Owls would nest in it. After some time had gone by without any
takers, she got really excited one day when she finally noticed some activity around
this perfectly placed nesting box.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a colony of Africanized bees –
oops! Undeterred by that little
miscalculation she always had bird feeders around the outside of the house that
attracted all kinds of songbirds. In fact, one of the few joys she had in her
life the last couple of years was watching all the different types of birds on
the feeder outside her window in the library where she spent her days.
Dottie had such a good heart and was so very giving that it is
hard to keep track of all whose lives she touched. Many of whom never met her in person. The ones that did knew her as Dotsey, Bubba, Buh,
Aunt Dottie, Dotz, Mrs. Dottie, and Dorothy.
As an example of something so very Dottie – she had a FB friend who also
had MS that passed away 2 months ago.
Yesterday, an email came in confirming Dottie’s gift of a tree she had
planted in Dawn’s memory. That
thoughtfulness is one of the many ways that I will remember her. For others, over the past month and since her
death, literally hundreds of tributes and remembrances have come in thru texts,
FB, email, and regular mail. One of
those messages epitomized the sentiments of many.
“Dottie was a gift to meet. Bet she
touched the heart of each and every person she encountered. She connected with
anyone she came across. We were just construction workers, but she made us feel
like family. Wish I could treat people like Mrs. Dottie did, but that would be
an impossibly tall order to fill. She had an impeccable heart with this innate
ability to inhabit the hearts of others. I have measured other customers to
Dottie and while some have a few of her characteristics none were near as lovable
as she. The world is at a loss for those who knew her and for those who never
got a chance to meet her. Truly one of a kind. I could never take her place, but I am
just gonna be a little bit nicer to those I come across to try 'n make up for
those who never had the chance to feel the love that emanated from her
immaculate heart.”
Dottie fought through the pain and indignities of MS &
CLL for so many years that when she finally gave herself permission to let go, she
went peacefully, and gently faded away with her last breath. On the 1st
of every month, I will always remember her by saying ‘Rabbit, Rabbit”. Rest in Peace my love, your struggles are
over. 3/8…2/4.
There will eventually be a Celebration of Life for Dottie,
but in the meantime if you feel so inclined, a donation can be made in Dottie’s
name to the Multiple Sclerosis Society. The website is www.nationalMSsociety.org with a
‘donate’ button in the top right corner. It should ask you if this is in memory
of someone special – you can write Dottie’s name and it will track the
donations that come in for her. You can
also mail a check to the National MS Society PO Box 289, Canton, MA 02021 and
include ‘in memory of Dottie Moore’. For questions or to donate by phone, call
1-800-344-4867.
