This Is VITAL: Linda Moore
Real stories from inside our community - our challenges, our wins, our heartbreaks, our connections. What connects us isn't any one adventure - it's a shared commitment to living a healthier, more vital life, together. This is where we tell those stories, in our members' own words.
Meet Linda Moore
"Just walk fifteen minutes, if that's all you can do."
Interview by Aroura Daniels
Aroura: So you've known Libby for a long time - since grade school?
Linda: Yes, we grew up together. First through eighth grade, there were four of us girls who stayed constant. Other kids came and went, but the four of us knew each other well - our families too.
Aroura: So you were pretty close.
Linda: We were. Which is funny, honestly, because I hadn't seen Libby in years. We lost touch for a long time. The last time was probably eight years ago - I took my daughter to New York for spring break, and Libby met us for dinner with her two daughters. That was it, until now.
Aroura: Is that how you first heard about VITAL - through that dinner?
Linda: No, she wasn't even doing it yet then. I saw it on Facebook - she'd posted a 90-mile, 90-day walking challenge. And I have a husband, Tommy, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2019, a year after we married. Before that, we were so active together - hiking, golf, travel. He worked in prison ministry, so we were all over the country. He used to run ultramarathons. Fifty miles in twenty-four hours, very slow and steady, but he did it.
Linda and Tommy hiking Austria
Aroura: At that distance, just finishing is the incredible part.
Linda: Exactly. You don't sleep - you just walk. He kept doing those for a while even after the diagnosis, but little by little, Parkinson's took over. We gave up our golf membership, then our gym membership. Piece by piece, we lost things. Now Tommy can walk maybe seventy-five feet on a good stretch, sometimes around the block. And through all of that, I gave things up too. I stopped doing almost everything. My health was fine, but I wasn't in a good place - physically or mentally.
About a year ago I realized I had to change, if for no other reason than to stay strong enough to take care of him. So I got a gym membership again, and I tried to start walking around the neighborhood. It wasn't that I physically couldn't - it was mental. He couldn't walk anymore, and it felt wrong to say, "I'm going for a walk," when we used to hike together and now he can't.
I'd started doing it and was feeling a little better, but I still had a lot of days I just didn't want to go out there without him. Then Libby posted the 90 miles in 90 days, and I thought - I can do a mile. So I joined.
Aroura: Wow.
Linda: It's strange how much it's changed things. I'm sitting with Tommy - and honestly, there's nothing I can do for him, so I just feel guilty sitting there - and I don't even talk to Libby, but she's in my head saying, "Get up and go walk a mile. Even if that's all you do." It's given me permission to take steps for myself. I've been doing it about a month now.
It's silly, but I know Libby's going to see the log, so I think, better get my mile in or she'll think I'm slacking. Some days it's two miles, three miles. It's become this quiet daily push. A couple weeks ago, Libby told one of the other members - who was feeling stressed - just walk fifteen minutes, that alone can change your day. So now, on the days I feel like I can't leave him again, I tell myself: just fifteen minutes. It always turns into thirty, or an hour. It's giving me permission to do something for myself. Tommy knows I'm doing it too - he'll ask, "Have you gotten your mile in today?"
Aroura: So you've got people around you keeping you motivated.
Linda: My husband, mostly. He tells me, "Parkinson's might take me, but it can't take you too." He's incredibly encouraging. This whole thing has never been about him holding me back - it's been my own mental block, not letting myself enjoy things he can't do anymore. I'm learning to let go of that.
Aroura: That's a lot to carry. I'm sorry, and honestly, I'm really moved hearing this.
Linda: Don't be impressed - I let myself go to hell in a handbasket for a while. But I'm doing better now. I've lost some weight, I feel better, and it makes me a better caregiver. When I first started asking myself what I'd lost, it wasn't just the physical activity - I'd pulled away from people generally. I didn't want to hear anyone's problems. So the first real step was starting a caregiver support group.
Aroura: When did you start that?
Linda: January. It's small, eight women and one man who come once a month. But hearing what they go through, and being a place for them to talk, has been huge. It's amazing how much better you feel helping other people instead of sitting in your own head. I've even brought in a local physical therapy group to teach us things like how to help our spouses transfer or stand, chair yoga, that kind of thing. They're starting a monthly program now. You just have to find ways to remember who you are again.
Aroura: How has your mindset changed since you started?
Linda: Honestly, a lot of my walks happen sitting right next to Tommy. I'll open my phone and see the other women on our team messaging that they've gotten their walk in, and something in me goes, okay, Linda, get up. I don't know most of them. We don't really talk one-on-one. But just seeing that they're all moving pushes me to move too - not because I'm competitive, but because everyone's out there doing it, and you realize you have to keep going too.
Aroura: Was there a moment when it got harder - and something helped you push through?
Linda: Yes. We took Tommy to Charleston to see a specialist - a hard trip for him. He was napping, and I sat down and got on my phone, and someone in V90 was posting her walk with this beautiful backdrop. I felt embarrassed to post from where I was, a hospital, because you never want people to look at you and feel sorry for you.
But it was around the same time Libby had said, "Just walk fifteen minutes." And I thought, who cares what people think. People are out there living, and someday I'll be back in the world too. So I got up and walked, and a couple streets over I found the ocean. I walked along this canal with the wind blowing,and it was so inspiring to me. And I thought, if I just stay inside my little world, I may not see what's out there.
It wasn't a big moment by most standards, but compared to where I'd been, it was everything. I've had a lot of moments like that in this group - seeing other members push through life challenges, you just have to keep going. This group has helped me do that.
Aroura: Looking ahead, how do you see your relationship to this changing - the walks, the connection with your teammates?
Linda: I think I'm forming a habit. Before, fitness was just part of my life, and then my life became something totally different, so fitness has to become a habit all over again. This program has helped with that - the hardest part is always starting. It's not that you physically can't; it's that mentally, it feels overwhelming, even though you know you'll feel better once you start.
I like watching my steps now. I like the process. I probably won't hit ninety miles - I started late - but it's put my mind in a place of commitment. This isn't an extra thing I do for myself anymore. It's just part of my day.
Aroura: And sometimes you find the ocean.
Linda: That's right. That was the best part.
Aroura: You're more inland normally, in South Carolina?
Linda: Greenville, yes. I've always been a walker, but Tommy taught me to hike. I'm a city girl at heart - I don't love the woods - but he showed me the beauty of the mountains, the unexpected views around a corner. We haven't hiked together in years now. But I'm learning I can still find pieces of that, right where I am.
Aroura: It sounds like you and Tommy are a team on this - he's encouraging you to get out there. Can you talk about that dynamic?
Linda: He's always been my encourager in everything. He used to be a strategic planner, and now, since he doesn't have much else to do, he jokes that he strategically plans my life instead - "Linda, you're my only employee now." He's the one who pushed me to rejoin the gym, and there are evenings when I've already done my walk and just want to sit next to him, and he'll say, "We're not sitting - let's go get in the pool and walk laps." He can't be out in the heat, so we walk laps together in the water, slow but steady, most nights. He still pushes me to do the things I don't feel like doing. If this V90 group plans a hike, he tells me I need to go meet them, fly out, be there. He wants me to keep living, and he's determined to help me do it.
Aroura: Has he pushed you toward hiking with the group too, not just walking?
Linda: He has - he's better at wanting that for me than I am at letting myself want it. It's hard, mentally. His life is winding down, and I have to figure out how to keep moving forward in mine while knowing that. It's a hard place to be - allowing myself to live while his opportunity to do so is leaving. But that's the truth of our life whether I like it or not, and I have to learn how to keep living inside it. This group is helping me do that. It sounds dramatic, and it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds day to day, but as his world got smaller, so did mine - and I'm trying to grow mine back.
Aroura: That's honest. It sounds like an incredibly hard balancing act.
Linda: It is. I appreciate this group for that. I might sign up again next round and actually hit ninety miles this time. Ninety miles used to sound almost absurd to me - when Tommy and I hiked, he'd go out and do twenty miles on a weekend, and I'd say, "I'll meet you when you've got eight left," and do those eight with him. So now, thinking I might manage one or two miles feels small by comparison. But it's better to walk one mile than none. I can't measure it against what we used to do.
Aroura: Not many people would casually say they're going to walk twenty miles.
Linda: Only Tommy. After his diagnosis, we actually trained to do a half marathon together - then my son came into town unexpectedly, so I told Tommy to go run it without me. My son and I went to meet him at the finish, and he didn't show, didn't show - they were literally packing up the finish line. Someone asked if I knew one of the last two people still out on the course. I said I did; I could see him moving on my phone. Everyone else had finished. Then he came out of the trees walking alongside an older woman, and they crossed together. He collapsed on the ground and said, "I'm so excited about my time." I told him, "You do realize you finished behind the older lady." And he said, "But I finished." That's exactly who he is. He had Parkinson's, and he finished a half marathon. That mindset inspires me. I let myself shrink because I was so afraid to live without him beside me - and now he's the one pushing me back out into life.
Aroura: Have you done a half marathon since then?
Linda: No - I'd done them before I met him, and we did several 5Ks together after his diagnosis, until he couldn't anymore. Since he stopped, I've never done a single thing without him. Not until this year. I've had a lot of firsts in this year - starting the caregiver group was probably the most important, then rejoining the gym, and then this challenge, because I knew I needed something beyond the gym. This works because I can walk from home, stay close to Tommy, and do it on my own time.
Aroura: Looking ahead - a year from now - do you see yourself sticking with these smaller daily walks, or working toward something bigger?
Linda: I can't really say, because Tommy's only going to get sicker from here, and I don't want to set goals I can't keep. For me, the goal is just the movement - doing something for myself. What I can do today is what I can do today. As he continues to decline, I don't know if that frees me up more or pins me down more. I've realized I don't actually have control over my life. But that's okay - I just need to be where I am right now and do my best there.
Aroura: So the uncertainty is what makes small, achievable goals matter so much?
Linda: Exactly. It beats having no goals at all, which is what I was doing before. At least now I have something small and doable. I'll never run a half marathon again - that's a lot of time I don't have, especially working full time and being away from Tommy already more than I'd like. That chapter's probably over. I just need to replace it with something else.
Aurora: I keep coming back to the story about finding the ocean from the hospital. Any other moments like that stand out?
Linda: That one, and Libby's line - "just walk fifteen minutes, if that's all you can do." That one stuck with me, because my instinct is always, I can't go far, so why go at all. Those two moments taught me it doesn't have to be big. You just have to move.
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Linda, thank you for trusting us with your story - and Tommy's. This is what VITAL is about: showing up for yourself in fifteen-minute pieces, even when, especially when, life makes that hard. Aroura, thank you for capturing such a powerful, touching story of Linda and her love, Tommy.
xx Libby