VCU news

By Eric Peters

The photos tell the story.

They show VCU School of Dentistry student Amy Moody on an already emotional day in the moments following the surprise homecoming of her husband, Sgt. 1^st Class Terry Moody, who has been on active duty in the United States National Guard. He arrived unexpectedly from his fourth and final deployment this week at the VCU School of Dentistry’s white coat ceremony.

The white coat ceremony is a day when second-year dentistry students graduate from the classroom portion of school to the clinical portion. Each student walks across stage and is presented with their first white coat, a symbol and uniform for professionals in the health care field.

As Amy walked off the stage, Terry was waiting.

“What was I thinking? It was just, ‘Oh my gosh, he actually is here,’” Amy said. “He missed a lot last year, so the fact that he potentially was going to miss that as well weighed really heavy on my heart, and the fact that he was there was just really special.”

Terry had been gone 10 months, nine of which were spent in Afghanistan. The two have been married 23 years and have three children.

“My classmates told me it was such an amazing moment because you see this sort of thing on TV, but when it happens in front of you, it’s totally different and amazing,” Amy said.

That might be why the moment’s emotion resonated so much in the VCU community and beyond. The photos, taken by VCU photographer Lindy Rodman, were posted to VCU’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and quickly became one of VCU social media’s most shared and liked posts ever, reaching more than 90,000 users and gaining more than 4,200 Facebook likes.

Amy is a dental hygienist who practiced in Richmond for 15 years. Many of those likes and the support exhibited in the comments section came from current or former patients.

“Amy, my favorite dental hygienist turned dentist and neighbor!!! This is awesome and sweet!” wrote Melanie Frank in the Facebook comment section.

“Well deserved and what an amazing surprise,” Holly Barth wrote. “And Amy was the BEST hygienist to ever clean our family’s teeth! She will be an amazing dentist!”

Amy has become close with many of her patients.

“They became friends and they were the reason I was able to survive the first three deployments,” she said. “I would go to work every day and it was like visiting old friends.”

When she graduates, she hopes to make that same connection with rural patients near her southwest Virginia hometown, Gate City, a place she described as being in need of better dental care.

“I want to give to patients that don’t have as much access to dental care,” she said. “I want it to be about building those relationships again and educating those patients to see the value in their oral health.”

Amy hopes she can do all of these things with Terry by her side. He plans to retire before any more deployments, and as their children finish high school and college in the coming years, the two hope to run that rural practice together.

What a better time to start planning that future than the day Amy received her white coat and Terry came home for good.

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