AV Medical Center lights its special Christmas tree
LANCASTER — The holiday season officially began at Antelope Valley Medical Center on Tuesday evening with the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Dozens of hospital staff and community members turned out to see the gaily decorated tree, tucked into the space between wings of the hospital and next to the entrance, blaze alight as CEO Ed Mirzabegian flipped the switch.
While a brightly lit sign of the holiday season, this particular tree is also a reminder of a very special former pediatrics patient who captured the hearts of those who knew him over the course of his too-short life.
Ricky Moore, and his younger sister, came to the hospital frequently for treatment for complications from cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that affects the lungs and digestive tract.
At that time, in the 1980s, most children with cystic fibrosis did not live to age 10, retired pediatrics nurse Debbie
Ogan said.
Because the disease requires intensive treatments and frequent, lengthy hospital stays, the Moore children became part of the hospital family, she said.
Moore’s sister, Filipa, died at age 4, but Ricky defied the odds and lived to age 16.
“We saw him go from a toddler to a teenager,” Ogan said. “We heard all his stories, all his escapades.”
Because Moore was so sickly and spent so much time in the hospital, “he didn’t really fit in at school,” she said. “We were kind of his friends, his big sisters, his extra moms.”
Ogan recalled that Moore attended her wedding, asking her to dance with him at the reception.
“It’s one of my favorite memories of him,” she said.
When he died in 1994, “it left a big hole in all of us,” she said.
Following Moore’s death and in hon
or and memory of the Moore siblings, the pediatrics staff planted a small tree in the courtyard below what was then the pediatrics unit, Ogan said. As it grew, staff would add lights and decorations during the holiday season to the delight of patients who could see it from the playroom window above.
“I think Ricky would just be tickled about it,” Ogan said.
That tree now towers over the three-story building next to it, and the lights and decorations are a way for the entire medical center community to mark the season.
The evening was capped with a performance of holiday songs by the Palmdale High School Chamber Singers, followed by hot drinks and cookies.