From the time she was afflicted with polio at the age of 4, Alyce Moss Flaherty needed crutches and a leg brace to go about what would become her life’s mission – bringing light and love to all she met.

She was armed with an indefatigable spirit and a beautiful smile that lit up any room she entered – and her’s well could have been the smile that Tony Bennett sang of in his hit song of the ’60s that began:

The shadow of your smile

When you are gone

Will color all my dreams

And light the dawn.

“What will she be most remembered for? I think it would be her smile,” said her husband, Mick Flaherty. “She always had a beautiful smile on her face. She was the kindest person. She’d want to get to know you. She was interested in people. When the time came for her to be cared for by hospice, she had the nicest smile on her face for all the hospice people who cared for her. They prayed for her, but she was also praying for them.”

When Alyce died Jan. 31 at the age of 75, it was not polio that took her. It was breast cancer diagnosed in March 2022 that aggressively spread throughout her body. She passed away at Friendship Haven’s Simpson Health Center and hadn’t been able to walk since entering there in December.

Her daughter, Lisa Reisner, was with her on that Tuesday night when she took her last breath. Just days earlier, doctors gave Alyce and Mick and their family the news that she had only a matter of days. That night, many of the family were attending a St. Edmond Middle School basketball game in which Alyce’s grandson, Griffin Laufersweiler, was participating.

“Doctors told us Saturday night she was transitioning,” said daughter Susan Laufersweiler. “I think she didn’t want to do it (die) in front of all of us. Sure enough, Lisa was with her and we got a phone call from her right after the game ended. We got there minutes later, but she was gone. I know mom waited, she didn’t want any of us to miss the game.”

Lisa said she kept reminding her mother “how important she was” and believes she is reunited in heaven with Alyce and Mick’s son, Tim, who died suddenly in September 2021 at the age of 50. “Fly high mom, run and dance with God, Tim, your parents, in-laws and friends.

“My beautiful mother taught us so much and always instilled in us humility, not thinking less of yourself but yourself less. She lived a life of strength, perseverance and faith. She lived her life for others as a wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She was everyone’s biggest champion. If you had the pleasure to know her, she rooted for you.”

In his homily at Alyce’s funeral service at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Msgr. Kevin McCoy couldn’t have picked a better Scripture verse to begin with than that from II Timothy 4: 6-8 16-18:

“St. Paul says, ‘The time of my dissolution is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ No truer words could be said of your wife, mother, grandmother, a sister and our friend, Alyce Angeline Flaherty.”

The race and the good fight for Alyce Angeline Moss Flaherty began in Inglewood, California, when she was born April 22, 1947, to Kay and Chester Moss. She had an older brother, Dick, and a younger sister, Linda. Their grandfather, Tom Moss, who owned a farm in southwest Missouri, lived with them in the Los Angeles suburb.

Dick Moss, who lives in Joplin, Missouri, said he still remembers the day in 1951 that changed the family’s lives.

“Mom and dad and Alyce, Linda and I had gone to visit a nephew of dad’s in Tolleson, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix),” he said. “We traveled from there to Mexico to a place called Rocky Point, played on the beach for a few days, and returned to Tolleson. Alyce was sitting on the couch one night with her right leg underneath her and when it was time to go, she tried to get up and walk but she just couldn’t. That night, the pain got so bad that we took her to a hospital in Phoenix. She was immediately placed into an iron lung; she was paralyzed from the neck down.”

The polio that struck her so suddenly is a highly infectious disease, mostly affecting young children, that attacks the nervous system and can lead to spinal and respiratory paralysis, and in some cases death. It would be several years before Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine that would help lead to near eradication of the disease today.

Alyce stayed in the hospital until she was strong enough that she did not need the iron lung, an artificial respirator invented for treatment of polio patients. She eventually returned to her family in California, undergoing many operations on her legs.

Recalled her sister Linda Moss, who lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: “She was in a hospital, and Dick and I were not allowed to visit Alyce in the polio ward. At some point Alyce had recovered enough that she could come home wearing braces on both legs and on crutches. I am sure this situation was traumatic for our parents and changed their lives in many ways.

“My dad would get up before going to work and do physical therapy with Alyce every morning. They always told her that she could do anything, and their love and commitment certainly helped her achieve a beautiful life. I also think her positive attitude was something she was born with; it was in her being and who she always was. I know that Dick and I always tried to create games that she could participate in whether she was in a wagon being pulled outdoors, etc. Dick being the oldest was the one that was creative in the games we played. Even as a young child she was always determined and had a smile on her face.

“Our mother loved her and never gave up on her and was the one who taught her to sew, cook, take her to piano lessons. It was a team effort with different roles for each of them, but they always supported her efforts to do what she wanted and to never give up.”

In 1954, Alyce’s grandfather prevailed on her father to sell his tire, battery and accessory business and move to Missouri where her grandfather owned a farm 15 miles east of Joplin. Their dad farmed the land and their mom taught at a rural school. The children first attended a rural one-room school, 32 students in six grades.

“Alyce participated in all the sports including baseball,” Linda said. “One of the best batters would hit for her and she would run the bases on her crutches. I used to get jealous that she would get picked before me to be on a team and I did mention this to her when I visited her for the last time.”

Linda recalled that when the family was in Los Angeles, Easterseals asked her parents if Alyce could be the face on its brochures, “but they said no, they did not want Alyce to have that type of publicity. Again, the polio was not a handicap but just a physical limitation that she would need to deal with and that’s how they wanted her to think of herself.”

The three Moss children attended McAuley Catholic High School in Joplin. Alyce learned to drive – using her left foot for the brake and accelerator pedals – and drove with her sister to school each day from their home near Carthage. In her senior year, Alyce was voted Miss Merry Christmas to represent McAuley in the Joplin Christmas parade.

“She was the perfect person for that honor with her beautiful smile and kindness,” Linda said.

Alyce learned to sew when she was seven and was told she would never be able to operate an electric sewing machine. She proved them wrong and made all of her clothes through high school. She was active in 4-H and was elected one summer with two other girls to attend the 4-H citizenship course in Washington, D.C.

Alyce decided she wanted to be a nurse and in an interview with The Joplin Globe when she was in high school, she told why: “I guess it is because I have spent so much of my life in hospitals.” The reporter asked, wouldn’t hospitals be the last place she would want to be? She replied, “It just doesn’t seem to work that way with me. It kept making me realize how much I could help others if I were only a nurse.”

After graduating from McAuley in 1965, she was accepted at St. Catherine’s School of Nursing in Omaha and was valedictorian of her class and student nurse of the year. Alyce was working at Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha as a pediatric nurse when she met Mick Flaherty, a St. Edmond graduate, at a party.

“We hit it off,” Flaherty said.

They were married April 4, 1970. After graduating from Creighton, Flaherty began work at Central Life Services in Omaha before they decided to move to Fort Dodge when their firstborn Tim was on the way. He went to work with his father, John Flaherty, at the Flaherty Insurance Agency under the Central Life umbrella. Alyce later became office administrator for the agency, serving in that role for 21 years.

They settled into Fort Dodge and had five children: Tim, who was the HyVee director in Fort Dodge when he died, married to Jodi with children Shannon, Sean, Katie and Maggie; Krysi, a massage therapist in Eugene, Oregeon.; Lisa Reisner, a reading instructor at Duncombe Elementary in Fort Dodge, married to Ryan with their children McKenzie and Calahan; Susan Laufersweiler, development director at St. Edmond and Holy Trinity Parish, married to Mark with children JT, Griffin and Josie; and Amy White, a second-grade teacher in Altoona, married to Adam with children Kaleb, Kennedy and Caroline.

One of Alyce’s best friends was Mary Larson, who was volunteer coordinator for UnityPoint Hospice from 2003-2022. Alyce was honored as Hospice Volunteer of the Year in 2014.

“It was a gift that I was given to meet people like Alyce,” Larson said. “She was a beautiful person, inside and out. She is the person I admired most in my life. She was just a wonderful, kind person, wonderful with patients and other volunteers and staff, treating everybody with respect. I just learned a lot from her about life.”

Beyond her hospice work, Alyce was active with her church. She and Mick received the Spirit of St. Edmond Family Award in 2012. She was part of Monican Mothers, served on the library board, was a bookstore volunteer, a Girl Scout Leader, a church greeter, a Sunday School leader and a member of 100 Women Who Care.

She was a huge fan of her grandchildren and was there to support them for every game, musical, concert or meet; she loved to play cards and games, work on puzzles, bake, and she enjoyed traveling, family vacations and summer times with her family at Twin Lakes.

“She made us all clothes,” Susan Laufersweiler said, “and every year she made pajamas for each grandkid for Christmas. She also cross stitched. She helped make curtains for our houses and mended everyone’s clothes. Msgr. McCoy said she was probably up there mending the angels’ wings, as she often helped mend clothes for him and the other priests.

“She was strong, she never let her it (her disability) get her down. When she played Duck Duck Goose with her grandkids, she’d tap them on the head with her crutch. She didn’t view herself as handicapped at all. She persevered through everything, and she taught us to persevere. You tell me I can’t do that, I’ll show you I can. We all have that strength.

“Mom was tough as nails and didn’t let anything stop her from doing the important things like going to the kids’ activities. Something that got her upset was when we tried to help out and do something for her. She was very independent and knew how she could achieve her mission. When we tried to help her, we usually got in the way.”

As her time on earth neared, Alyce continued to pray for others – including Father Lynn Bruch, a former priest in Fort Dodge, who is battling Parkinson’s disease. He came to Fort Dodge from his home in Manson to be concelebrant at her funeral.

Her brother and sister came to visit her from Joplin and Mexico as her life neared its end.

“It was a beautiful experience to be with her family,” Linda Moss said. “She always had family around 24/7 and was surrounded by love. The family would say prayers, sing or play her favorite songs and talk to her about her grandchildren and what they were doing that day or week.”

Alyce told her brother Dick before he left, “I just want you to know I’m fine, I’m at peace with this, don’t worry about me…”