Glenna Moore Stories

Glenna Moore

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Glenna Keith Coffey Moore Obituary

Nine letters, “Yankee Iron Horse.” As an avid crossword puzzler, Glenna Moore knew the answer—Lou Gehrig. When Glenna penciled in the name ‘Lou Gehrig’ on countless crossword puzzles, little did she know they would one day share something life-altering in common.

On July 27, 2007, Glenna Keith Coffey Moore, age 70, passed away after living the past two years with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher and friend to all, Glenna will be remembered for her radiant smile, contagious laughter, and always-caring heart.

Glenna’s life began on November 22, 1936 in Big Spring, TX as the daughter of John Askew Coffey and Margaretta Sanders Coffey. The Coffeys were schoolteachers and instilled the teacher traits of patience and grace with their daughter. Glenna graduated from Baylor University in 1959 with a B.A. (Education) degree where she served as President of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

After college, Glenna moved to Dallas, TX and followed in her parent’s footsteps as a fourth-grade teacher at George W. Truett Elementary School from 1959 to 1962.

On a blind date in the fall of 1961 she met William Alvin Moore, Jr. (Al). It was a classic case of opposites attract. Being outgoing and talkative, Glenna never envisioned herself finding Al, the much more introverted of the two, attractive—but she did. And in the summer of ’62, they married.

By the spring of 1963, Glenna and Al were living in Fort Worth, TX when they welcomed the birth of their first daughter, Melana Love Moore (Lana). A second child, this time a boy, followed soon thereafter—William Alvin Moore, III (Trip). And in 1970, girl/boy twins arrived—Margaret Elizabeth Moore (Marty) and John Hardin Moore (John).

The Moore Family settled into their North Dallas home on Tophill Circle where Glenna took care of the kids and Al took care of his young, growing business.

Glenna led a very active life during this time. Besides the full-time job of being a mother, Glenna found time to volunteer for Meals on Wheels, participate in numerous Parent Teacher Associations, and be an active member of Spring Valley Methodist Church and later, Prestonwood Baptist Church and Park Cities Baptist Church.

For thirty-plus years, Glenna enjoyed the camaraderie and competition from playing tennis at T Bar M Tennis Club. She played on numerous teams with the Tennis Competitors of Dallas, the Women’s Tennis Association, and as a mixed-doubles partner with Al. Some of Glenna’s fondest times were spent on and off-the-court with her tennis friends.

Because of her personable, dependable, and likeable ways, Glenna developed friendships easily. Some of her most enduring friendships were formed within her long-running neighborhood bridge club and more recently, her dominoes group.

She was fortunate to remain close to her brother, Robert Thomas Coffey, M.D. of Fort Worth, TX.

Glenna was also fortunate to enjoy the endearing friendship of Trip’s wife, Jacqueline Blair Moore, and their two children—Blair Christian Moore and Hannah Love Moore. Glenna absolutely adored her two grandchildren who affectionately called her ‘GiGi.’

But Glenna’s most enduring and endearing friendship was with her husband of 45-years. By the time their kids had grown and moved away, Al and Glenna became the dating couple they used to be and set forth to live and love till eternity. As a couple, they traveled the world enjoying the adventures of barging down the canals of France, cruising through the Straits of Magellan, and ballooning over Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the creeping paralysis of the ALS disease put a stop to their worldly travels.

As the disease progressed, Glenna’s body became weaker but her bond with Al became stronger. Their unfailing love was on display every day as Al took care of his ailing wife until her passing.

And now, Glenna patiently waits for Al to join her in their most adventurous travels yet—the glorious eternity of Heaven.

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The Moore Family welcomed friends on Monday, July 30 at Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Home. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, July 31 at Park Cities Baptist Church.

Memorials can be made in Glenna’s name to:

MDA ALS Division
12750 Merit Drive, Suite #1220
Dallas, TX 75251

UPDATE: July 26, 2007

As mentioned earlier, last weekend was not a good one. Glenna's breathing became very shallow to the point that she experienced tremendous anxiety over breathing. After talking with the doctor, we decided it was time to use morphine to help lessen Glenna’s anxiety. (The morphine has helped a lot.)

We also thought it was time to bring in hospice help. The at-home hospice help is administering the medicines Glenna is receiving and monitoring her condition.

When you start using morphine and hospice help, it becomes obvious we are close to the end. And that is where we are.

— Al Moore

Holding On…

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Last weekend was not a good one.

Glenna is holding on but her breathing has become very shallow and she did not want to leave her recliner chair all weekend. We are changing some of her medications to help with the anguish and anxiety she’s experiencing. However, these are the medicines used during end times.

Although God only knows when he will call one of his children, it does appear that the end is near.

-- Al Moore

HEALTH UPDATE: Report from the ALS Clinic

My Father sent me the following Health Update:

Friday's visit to the ALS clinic revealed Glenna had lost 8 pounds. Given she had lost almost 10 pounds at her previous clinic visit, the staff expressed concern. We’ve been instructed to give her at least 4 cans of Ensure per day. Maintaining one’s weight is a big issue when you have to get all of your food from a liquid through a feeding tube. Glenna’s breathing is very shallow. On the breathing test, she was unable to exhale with enough force to register on the instrument. This is not a good sign. Additionally, Glenna is unable to blow her nose because she simply can't expel enough air.

Doing even the smallest thing tires her out more and more these days—Glenna requires a lot of rest. Today, she will go to the hair dresser and will come home very tired, but will look gorgeous.

HEALTH UPDATE: The Disease Marches On

I spoke with my Dad today and he passed along noticable changes he’s seen with Glenna.

While ALS progresses differently in each of its victims, it seems to be moving fast with Glenna. As my Dad says, “The disease keeps marching on.” Some of the things she could do last month, she can't do this month or … has a very hard time doing them.

ALS has rendered my Mom’s right-hand almost useless. Her left-hand still has some mobility and dexterity; however, the use of that hand grows weaker by the day. Glenna has been trying to feed herself pudding left-handed but since that hand is weak, Deborah, her superstar caretaker, or Al feeds her the pudding.

If you’ve sent Glenna an email recently and are waiting for a response, be patient. My Dad is now taking dictation and answering her emails.

The good news is Glenna can still move the computer mouse so she’s able to play Solitaire on the computer. Better news is she still manages to work the daily Crossword puzzle and her books of Sudoku puzzles.

Glenna goes to the ALS Clinic on Friday and we should get more specific analysis on how the disease is marching on. More to come…

HEALTH UPDATE: New Meals and a New Device

For the last couple of weeks we've been pureeing food for Glenna to eat. (It's amazing how well salmon crabs, barbecue ribs, and anything crunchy is able to be pureed.) However, Glenna will be getting more of her daily nourishment from Ensure. This all part of the natural progression with ALS where people are unable to chew food (in particular, chew crunchy tid-bits of food) and thus, they have to drink something silky smooth for nourishment to go down.

Glenna was outfitted with a feeding tube earlier this year. She mainly uses the feeding tube to ingest medicine. At some point, all her food will probably be ingested through the feeding tube. For now, we are transitioning to drinking Ensure.

Talking-wise, Glenna's speech has been reduced to garbled utterances. She's been using a low-tech Fisher Price Doodle Pro to write out specific words. That simple childhood toy has worked great. Now, Glenna is upgrading and learning to use a high-tech DynaVox device (shown below) to communicate what she wants to say.

This DynaVox device is basically a laptop enabled with a digitized speech generator. Glenna can press a touch-screen button for common sayings like, “Please move my feet.” and the DynaVox will voice that exact sentence. She can also use the device in more complicated ways to talk. But really, this high-tech device will come in handy when Glenna plays Dominoes with her friends and needs to say, “Use this to start my train." (To view the screen, click here.)

Every day brings new problems and we experiment to find new solutions. Bottles of Ensure, the Doodle Pro, and the DynaVox speech generating device are helping to solve for Glenna's difficulties with eating and speaking.