faith! - Molly Dougall

When Molly Dougall first acquired her vaccine certification five years ago, she had no idea how significant that skill would prove to be. A pharmacist by training, Molly, 34, initially became certified to provide vaccinations with the pharmacy residency program that took her to rural Virginia in the heart of Appalachia.

She can still see the face of the man who received her first shot. He was an elderly gentleman in Wise, Va., who had shown up at the flu shot clinic. “After I told him it was my first shot ever, he died laughing and said, ‘You pulled that off really well,’” Molly recalled.

She has no idea why she continued to remain certified to administer vaccines from that point forward. She considered it a nice way to give back to colleagues – administering flu shots in the office for those with whom she works. But 2021 has given Molly a new appreciation for that skill, and perhaps left her pondering her career path a bit existentially.

Molly majored in chemistry at Sewanee because she loved science, but she wasn’t at all sure what she wanted to do with her life. When her mother sent her a letter about Presbyterian College starting a pharmacy school, Molly disregarded it, initially. After a job with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration straight out of college, she soon discovered that she didn’t want to spend her life monitoring noise levels and chemical hazards at industrial sites. Pharmacy school seemed a good fit, after all. She ended up graduating from Presbyterian’s first pharmacy class in 2014.

“Was it her (her mother)? Was it God?” leading her down that path? Molly’s not sure. She admits she has had a sense of being in the right place at the right time at certain moments along the way. In Appalachia at the flu clinic. In her current work with a family practice office where her job is to educate patients about their medications. And about six weeks ago when she administered her first COVID vaccine to a fellow healthcare worker.

“There is not a concrete answer as to why, but something inside of me just did it (kept her vaccine certification). “Who would have ever known I would have the skill set at this moment? I would have never predicted any of it.”

A cradle Episcopalian, Molly, who was recently elected to serve on St. Martin’s vestry, grew up attending church regularly as well as Sunday school and EYC. She has fond memories of Sundays in church with her family, but it is Camp Gravatt that she considers the cornerstone of her faith formation. There in the piney woods outside Aiken, Molly learned about leadership, about trusting those with whom she worked, about community and about seeing the value and dignity in every human being. “That has totally shaped my life. I would never give up one of those summers for anything,” she said.

At Gravatt -- where Molly was a camper and a counselor over a span of a dozen years-- she learned to value the unique abilities that each person brings to the table, and then to use those skills for the good of the whole. “You were expected to be your true self. We capitalized on the uniqueness of each individual,” she said.

That understanding was put to the test the summer she turned 16. After a serious car accident on a dirt road not far from Camp Gravatt, Molly sustained injuries that required brain surgery. Two weeks after the accident, she insisted on returning to the camp she so dearly loved. She knew she would be nurtured back to health there in a way she would not have been had she stayed home, safely cocooned by her parents. So with a half-shaven head and lots of unresolved questions for herself about the accident, she returned to camp and worked it out.

“The surgeon and my parents were not thrilled about letting me go back, but I pushed relentlessly,” she said. “It was the welcoming, loving environment of that staff that helped me talk about it and laugh about it and emotionally heal from it before I had to go back to high school.”

The healing that occurred in that environment has stayed with Molly ever since, teaching her something about the needs of the human spirit beyond medications and medical procedures.

From an early age she was taught that part of one’s faith life involves giving back to others. She saw that demonstrated by fellow counselors at Camp Gravatt and strives to live that out now. “That giving back …. I’m incredibly blessed in lots of different ways and I do strive every day to give back,” she said.

Maybe that giving back involves helping an older patient understand why taking her insulin on the right schedule will impact her health in specific ways, or maybe it involves volunteering on off-hours at a COVID vaccination clinic. Or maybe it just means showing up for a pop-up worship service two days before Christmas to celebrate as best as a community can in the midst of a pandemic.

“I literally ran off the tennis court to go,” she said of the Christmas Eve-Eve service that St. Martin’s spontaneously offered when weather forecasts indicated that heavy rains were likely to cancel outdoor Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.

The brief respite that service and other worship services at St. Martin’s have provided this past year have helped Molly stay grounded in the midst of 60-hour weeks monopolized by the demands of a raging pandemic.

“I don’t know that I realized how appreciative I would be for Communion as I am now,” she said. She has also grown more appreciative of the exchange of the Peace. She and her family will text “The Peace” to one another if they are not at church together. She also loves sharing it – even at a distance – with fellow church members in attendance at St. Martin’s outdoor services.

She admires the flexibility that has allowed so many to be resilient in the face of so many challenges this year – at her church, in her work, and in her community. Some days, she considers her own resilience.

“I think of all of the puzzle pieces falling together in the right places. I pursued pharmacy, retained my immunization credentials, and I work in a position that provides flextime to go give COVID vaccines.… It’s an honor to be able to do this – to love my neighbor as myself, to provide my community with what we need to stay healthy.”

Molly joined St. Martin’s in 2019 along with her parents, Tom and Wendy, and her brother William.