Obituary of Norma Hyman Moxley

November 3, 2019

Norma Fox Moxley was born in Brooklyn New York in 1940. Gifted musically from an early age she was selected at age 7 to study classical piano at the Third Street Music School in Manhattan with concert artist Jan Gorbaty; later, as a teenager, she taught herself acoustic guitar and played folk and blues songs for friends and family. Graduating valedictorian from her junior I high school class, she went on to James Madison High School and then Barnard College where she majored in psychology. Eventually, she became editor-in-chief of psychiatric books and journals at Human Sciences Press. She and her then-husband, an attorney, were raising their 3-year old daughter Katrina in NYC and had just adopted her infant sister Alicia when on n the morning of May 22, 1992, Norma experienced severe headaches and blackouts at her office and was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke. For eight weeks she remained in a coma, from which her medical team did not expect her to awaken. At the very best, her neurologist determined that she would be in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of her life.

The rest of Norma's story is that of a miraculous journey, both back--and then forward—from the edge of hopelessness. After five years of hospitalization and rehabilitation, she was finally discharged from inpatient care, and with the help of a community- a based program offered for traumatic brain injury survivors established a home of her own and a new life. Though no longer able to play the piano or read music, she was able to call upon her lifelong musical gifts both to compose songs and develop her personal singing style to build a repertoire of blues and folk favorites which she recorded as a benefit for the National Stroke Association. Until her final years, she and her voice teacher were developing a project for a series of albums that Norma hoped would serve as a source of inspiration to all who may embark on their own journey of rehabilitation and recovery. In Lieu Of Flowers Donations Can be made to the National Stroke Association http://www.stroke.org/

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