Celebrating Pine Islanders: Marilyn Moore
Marilyn Moore said the most important thing to know when getting to know her, to be fair, would be going back to her heritage.
“My grandparents came from Finland. They struggled the land and became farmers in central and western Minnesota,” Moore said.
Being the oldest of 11 children provided many important lessons and challenges.
“Because I was the oldest, I was expected at a very young age — even 3 years old — to carry the lantern, walking through heavy snow to the barn so that the cows could be milked or get water or fed,” Moore said.
Although the children in her family were never told directly with words, she said, they knew by demonstration to try to accomplish something each day. The term, in Finnish, she said, to have determination, perseverance or to overcome everything, she explained, is known as, “SISU.” This term is instilled and has been taught by each generation in her family.
When it comes to getting to Pine Island, Moore said she credits that maneuver to faith. Two different situations, she and her late husband George were in, brought the result of folks telling the Moores they had to come to Pine Island, she said.
“We had wanted to find a winter home here on the Gulf Coast of Florida,” Moore said.
In the fall of 2003, the hunt for their water home began and they drove to Pine Island. Although they had to wait, she said, until 2011 to buy their place, the route to home had begun. At first glance, the couple did not feel drawn here but after asking people at a gas station if there was any place of interest for a winter home, a voice from behind led Moore to Flamingo Bay in St. James City.
“We found this lovely place on Flamingo Drive,” Moore said.
Although she admits they loved the island immediately, Moore’s affection for Pine Island is easily displayed by things she does, which come easily, as a part of her nature, because of the way she was raised.
If asked to describe the island, she said, she would begin by telling folks it is a place like no other place.
“It reminds me of my own humble beginnings,” Moore said.
She also said, like many islanders, she has no interest in broadcasting the wonderful qualities offered by this island, as that might bring more people here, thereby changing it, but that it would remain this way for the young people who may want something like this.
“In fairness to those of us that are here, wanting that, that is the fair thing to say,” Moore said.
Her greatest wish for Pine Island, she said, is that it would stay exactly the way it is.
“I think just being humble and having what we have here on our island should remain the way it is for the future. I think planning for the future is just the way we were raised. Planning for our children, our grandchildren and now our great-grandchildren, that they will have the same adventures,” Moore said.
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