Public Servant At Heart Laura Moody
In this issue, Mrs. Laura Moody is the first local resident being honored in the GR Times community that cares series. Over the next few months, the series will high light individuals who have through the years have demonstrated that they do what they do for the benefit of the community and they do it from the heart.
After graduating from nursing school in the 1970's, Moody began working at Metropolitan Hospital as a floor nurse. She then worked at Grand Rapids Job Corps and as a health manager. In 1990, she began working for Grand Rapids Public Schools and worked for ten years along with working the night shift at Hospice of West Rapids. About twenty-two years ago, she began working at Grand Rapids Community College as a Nursing Professor.
GRT: You are known as someone that people have learned that they can count on. Why is helping other people so important to you?
Moody: I was knick named the Dark Angel because anytime someone would call and needed my help, I would go, and it didn't matter if it was 2 o'clock in the morning or even later. I would answer the call and go to a home if needed and I would sit and talk with the family letting them know what resources are available to them and that is just what I did. I enjoy doing it and I have always done it. When I was younger, I took care of a family of six and I was just nine years old.
GRT: Where did you get such a public servant attitude towards others?
Moody: My grandmother and I use to go to the WTU Center and she use to make quilts and take care of people and I use to just watch her and I would say to myself that I wanted to take care of someone just like she did. In one situation, their were kids whose father was a construction worker in Detroit and their mother was in a mental institution and they needed help so I would help get the kids ready for school in the morning and cook their breakfast after I went to school myself. I would stay with them at night sometimes and on the weekends I would stay and help out with cooking, and cleaning up.
GRT: How did you get interested in nursing?
Moody: Well, my mother was a nurse and she was sickly all my life and I use to take care of her, and in taking her I have always lived with her. My mother's sister had a stroke and so my husband Nate and I moved her into our home. I took care of my mother and my aunt until both of them passed away and my sister has MS and she had moved back to Grand Rapids so we added on to our present residence and made a room for her that is handicap accessible for her. When my brother Michael had a stroke, then I started overseeing his care making sure that I had people checking in and assisting him everyday when I could not be there. It is just what I do.
GRT: How important have your husband and children been to your success?
Moody: My husband, my children and grand children have always been apart of anything that I've wanted to do, like during my travels, being there my support and that has been very important that they have let me be the woman of God that I was born to be.
GRT: Are you also affiliated with the Grand Rapids Black Nurses correct?
Moody: I am one of the founders of the organization here in Grand Rapids. We are very involved in the community through health fairs or resources and I am also involved in the community through my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha I am involved in any initiative that is related to health. It is my job to work smarter, not harder, so if I get a resource for you, it doesn't mean that I have to do the work but I am going to make sure that you know what is out there and what is available to you.
GRT: You recently retired, are you enjoying your retirement?
Moody: I retired on June 22,2020. My season is up working in the professional world so I established a scholarship for Black nursing students. Although I am retired, I still from time to time will go to make a hospital visit or take someone to the doctor or just go to listen what people are saying. I don't always say that I am a nurse, I am just there so that when they start asking questions, I want to make sure that they understand what they are being asked or I want to make sure that they have the right resources that are available to them. Sometimes when I am at the different doctors offices with different patients, I listen to what they are being told and so I ask questions and sometimes they ask me if I am in the medical field. I want them to know that they are not just talking to anyone. I always say that they body you save might be your own. The whole thing for me is that if I can help one person along my journey, my living will not be in vain.
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