Although my mom and dad didn’t look like June and Ward Cleaver (if you ask me my parents were much prettier and more handsome- but I digress), I grew up in a household full of love, fun, and many blessings. I am sandwiched between my older sister and younger brother. And I love being the “middle”. We moved a fair amount growing up, not because of any military connection, but rather because of my dad’s love for the retail business. Like me, he adored people and getting to know them. Dad was also a middle child. Although our moves required us to make new connections with new people, we all held firm in our connectedness between the five of us. Some of my most memorable times of childhood include going to Sunset Beach, North Carolina every other summer to reconnect with my mom’s eleven older siblings and my many cousins spread throughout the country, spending the weekend before Christmas with my dad‘s smaller yet equally special family, and working side-by-side with my family in our family owned business in downtown Harrisonburg (the store was Joseph News for those who may be familiar with it). I also fondly remember going for family drives after church on Sundays. The last home that all five of us resided in together was in Harrisonburg where we attended Asbury United Methodist Church. It is there that I realized that church isn’t just a place to not only hear about God’s love, but more importantly to witness his love.
Certainly my reference to the Cleaver household is genuine. But we all know that every household experiences trials, no one is exempt. Throughout our childhood years my sister, brother, and I were hospitalized numerous times for atypical diagnoses like my sister’s histoplasmosis, but we gratefully came out unscathed. However, in the summer of 1980 my life, and the lives of my family, changed. I was diagnosed with Guillain Barre’ Syndrome. I went from being a “typical” healthy seventeen year old who was likely more interested in school because of the social opportunities, working after school for my dad, applying to colleges, etc. to spending that year being tutored at UVA for two months and then at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center until I graduated with my class in the spring of 1981. Through this time, I started to see the individuals at my church as much more than fellow congregation members and more like a family. With their help, mom and dad were able to continue working, my sister to go to Virginia Tech, and my brother to continue similarly studying the social aspects of high school. My life was forever changed in the summer of 1980, but I’m grateful for all of the blessings that it has given me. There’s much more to my story, and with every birthday the story gets longer. With God‘s grace, the story will keep getting better.
P.S. In 1998 I got married to Clay Huie in Asbury and in 2001 and our now 23 year old son (Gray) was baptized there. These two reassure me every minute that God is the light!!
-Paige Moore (Huie)
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