Celebrating the miracle of Madison Isabella Moore

courtesy photo

”A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” – Maya Angelou

Madi Moore of Linton lived an all-too brief 17 years. On July 15 at 7:30 a.m., Moore passed away of Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD), a complication arising after a stem-cell transplant, at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis.

“We are so sad and devastated at the loss of our angel, Madi,” said Moore’s mother, Tera Orman of Linton. “Thinking about living a day without her breaks our hearts. It’s hard to come home and see her room and all of her pictures and all of her things and not collapse. All we can do is keep going, keep breathing, keep living and keep Madi’s memory alive. I don’t want anyone to ever forget her. That’s my worst fear, I just don’t want her to be forgotten. I know she is in Heaven, and she is so happy right now, but we miss her so terribly.”

For all of Moore’s life, with the exception of the last year and a half of it, the spunky Moore was just an average kid, with an average kid’s routine filled with school, friends, her church and family.

Everything changed just after New Year’s Day 2018 when Moore was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and the fight of her life began.

“My heart sank,” Orman, said at the time. “My whole life, my faith, everything I’ve ever known about praying and believing just came to that moment. It scared me. We all sat down as a family and talked. I tried to be brave, we all did, but the tears flowed. We have a strong faith in our Lord and we know he is a healer. Madi told us the next day she wasn’t afraid. She knows God will heal her and it will be okay.”

And heal her He did.

With the help of many in Greene County who heard of Moore’s situation, from classmates and friends to four school basketball teams, Linton-Stockton, Bloomfield, Shakamak and Eastern Greene, playing at the 2018 Greene County Invitational, people began to pray for Moore, joining together to add strength to the requests sent up to Heaven.

“The prayer really touched our hearts,” said Orman. “We all watched the game live-streamed on the Greene County Sports Network. Madi smiled so big and was so touched by all this love.”

”The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God!“ – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Moore began a several-month stay at Riley.

“They told us the level of cancer in her body was one hundred percent,” Orman said. “They started chemotherapy immediately. The next 10 days were a roller coaster. The cancer started to fade, then it would go back up. They told us the chemo didn’t work.”

At several points of time during Moore’s stay at Riley, she got so sick that the family was prepared for the worst.

“Her fever shot up to 106.7 at one point, and she was put on a ventilator,” said Orman. “This was after she had had six chemo treatments a day for 10 days straight and they said she had hemorrhaging in her lungs.”

The family, whose faith in God never faltered, began a nightly ritual of prayer.

“Madi said she was ready to meet God,” said stepfather Gregg Orman at the time. “And I asked her, ‘What can we do for you, what do you want for us to do?’, and she said, ‘Just don’t leave me,’ and we never did. Every minute Madi was at Riley at least one of us was there. God made his presence known through us. We give credit to God, medicine and persistence for getting her through.”

Orman said the family stopped begging, stopped crying, and began instead to be thankful.

For months and months, community members organized fundraisers for the family, selling bracelets, yard signs and t-shirts and hosting events to raise money to ease the financial burden on the family members who put their lives on hold to spend their time and energy at Moore’s side at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis.

At Riley, Moore received chemotherapy, four rounds in all, over a span of six months. The family was informed by Riley doctors that a DNA/chromosome test revealed that while remission for Moore was very likely, her specific genetic makeup made it also very likely her cancer would return after a period of remission.

Moore’s family attributed the victory of her remission to the power of prayer. Prayer they recited nightly over her, prayer that was offered in earnest by area churches and community members and prayer given by people far and wide who had heard Moore’s story.

The doctors informed the family that the next step for Moore would be a stem-cell bone marrow transplant followed by three rounds of chemotherapy. Testing was begun to determine if there were any matching donors in the family, but none were found, not an uncommon result in cases like Moore’s.

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ― Thomas Campbell

According to cancer.net, only about 30 percent of people who need a bone marrow transplant can find a matching donor in their immediate family. For the remaining 70 percent, doctors need to find HLA-matched bone marrow from other donors.

In Moore’s case, a donor was found, a young woman from across the world, anxious to give her healthy cells to Moore. Moore began nine days of ablative, or high-dose, chemotherapy in preparation for the much-anticipated stem cell transplant scheduled for Aug. 31.

For a time, Moore’s life returned to nearly normal and the Linton teen was able to return home, taking her rightful place in the family home.

And then, in early July, Moore’s health took a turn for the worse as GVHD set in.

“Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don’t remember me at all.”– Laura Ingalls Wilder

According to the American Cancer Society, GVHD is not rare. Up to 70 percent of transplant recipients develop acute GVHD, which crops up within the first few months of treatment, and 40 percent get chronic GVHD, the form that appears more than 100 days post-transplant. As the name implies, the chronic condition can last for years — or a lifetime — and its symptoms range from mildly annoying to disabling to life-threatening.

After a stem cell transplant, the recipient’s body will soon start to produce immune cells from the donor stem cells. Any malignant cells that linger after pre-transplant treatment can thus be killed off by the new immune cells, in a process that is referred to as the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect.

In Moore’s case, the life-threatening complication began attacking her skin and lungs, making breathing difficult and elevating Moore’s blood pressure. Moore was not eligible to receive a lung transplant because patients must be cancer-free for five years before being considered.

“We need a miracle today,” Orman said on social media, “I’m still trusting God. We owe our child our fight, our faith and our strength. Madi is fighting hard, and if we could all continue to fight hard with her, that’s gonna help her through this. She never quits. She keeps fighting and pushing.”

And the Greene County community responded, holding impromptu prayer circles whenever and wherever young people gathered.

“Tonight we witnessed Eastern Greene FCA, volleyball, football and basketball teams, members of the marching band and community members put rivalries aside and gather together to pray for Madi Moore from Linton High School,” a social media post read. “The EG community is praying for you and your family, Madi.”

At White River Valley High School July 11, a group of students, faculty and administrators gathered on the school’s front lawn, joining hands in prayer for Moore, and local car club, All American Muscle Car Club, rallied to plan a community prayer event for Moore.

The club’s leader, Linton resident Andrew Perkins said, “This is just weighing very heavily on our hearts, and we just had to do something,” Perkins said. “Our car club, All American Muscle, will be hosting a cruise-in at the city park in Linton at 1 p.m. July 21. No trophies, no awards and no ribbons, this is 100 percent for Madi. We will be accepting donations for her. Give if you want to, give what you want to, or not at all. It’s up to you. What I am asking is for everyone to come out and support her. We would like to ask the community to join us in prayer for her. You don’t have to pray if that’s not what you do, and the event is entirely non-denominational, but show up and support her. Let’s bring this community together in one place for one cause. Sending prayers on social media is easy, we want to pray together as a community in person, and join together our intent for Madi to come through this.”

Since the devastating news of Moore’s death, Perkins has said the event will go on.

“All American Muscle CC event ‘Cruise in for a Cause’, is still going to happen Sunday July 21 at Humphrey’s Park in Linton, Indiana at 1 p.m.,” Perkins said. “This is the time that we need to pull together even harder for this family in their time of need. Please join us at the park this coming Sunday to check out all the cars and trucks and all the organizations that are coming to show support. Enjoy live music from Little Connie and Geoffrey Gentry. We also have six different food vendors. All proceeds go to the family of Madi Moore. And most importantly, join us with 12 churches from the community and surrounding areas as we come together for prayer for Madi’s family and friends. We may have not got the miracle that we was hoping for, but look at the sheer amount of people and families that she has touched the hearts of. The bonding of communities and people coming together, that is Madi’s miracle. What a wonderful testimony we all have witnessed.”

The Humphreys Park event grows every day and will feature food vendors, speakers, live music from Little Connie and Geoffrey Gentry’s Sister Bluebird and representatives from 12 Linton-area churches. In addition, a banner created by Shad Cox of Shad’s Signs in Linton will be present at the event for all attendees to sign to give to Moore’s family to represent the love of all who attend.

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Mitch Albom

Madi, we will never, ever forget you..

“And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief.” – William Cullen Bryant

Funeral services for Madi will be held at Linton-Stockton High School Auditeria at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, 2019, with her stepfather, Pastor Gregg Orman officiating. Burial will follow at Fairview Cemetery in Linton.

Visitation will be held at the High School Auditeria on Friday from 2 - 8 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. until the time of service.

Memorial donations may be given to Cornerstone Prayer Blanket Ministry. Envelopes will be provided during the visitation.

Online condolences may be shared with Madi’s family at www.welchcornett.com.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Welch & Cornett Funeral Home in Linton.