|
Teda Neill nears a century of living, still helping children |
Go to Page 1 |
August 4th, 2011 under Home Story Highlight
By BENJAMIN WERMUND
ALPINE – When Teda Neill first met the few original orphans of Albergue Casa Hogar in the mid-1990s, they were living in an abandoned Ojinaga building that had served as a storehouse for illegal drugs.
The children slept on pallets on the floor and ate food off of hot plates.
A Mexican couple was caring for the children, but Neill knew they could not do it alone.
"They definitely needed a lot of help," Neill said.
Teda Neill turned 99 this week.
So the retired child welfare worker decided to do just that. She started slowly, bringing a little money at a time to the orphanage, then she began to get others involved, including the Presbyterian Church, and the donations grew. Eventually Neill founded the Casa Hogar Orphanage Inc., a nonprofit group to support the orphanage.
Now the children live in a three-building compound with beds, a kitchen and a playground.
Neill turned 99 last Wednesday, and after a nearly century-long life of helping children like the orphans of Casa Hogar, she returned to Far West Texas where her career began — and she had a pretty big week.
Neill was honored with a Brewster County Commissioner's Court resolution celebrating her 99th birthday.
"Teda Neill has been the epitome of everything a good social worker should be and has dedicated her life to making the lives of children better," the resolution states.
Neill also attended the semi-annual Casa Hogar board meeting Saturday, which she does twice a year, acting as the board's honorary chair.
"Teda was the grandma, the founder, the guiding spirit, the conscience and any other words like that you can think of, of all the people she has enlisted to support [Casa Hogar]," board president Victoria Bannister said. "She brings a continuity and an enduring spirit."
Neill, who now lives in an assisted living facility in Carlsbad, New Mexico, also visited her Fort Davis home of 50 years.
Neill spent a few nights at the old Lockhart clinic, where she said she was always able to take Mexican patients unable to get into the hospital.
Even at 99, Neill is quick-witted and fully with it. She occasionally repeats herself, and sometimes forgets names, but she remembers more than enough to make up for that. She has a life of stories and she was ready to share.
Neill was especially excited about getting to see her Trueheart house in Fort Davis that she called home for 50 years before selling it to Joe and Lanna Duncan a few years ago.
Neill said she stopped by and a yardman offered to let her in and look around.
So Neill was able to go into the old Victorian home her first husband had bought her for $5,000 in 1949 one more time.
"We spent two hours there," Neill said. "They've done a beautiful job."
When Neill first saw the house in 1949, she had tears in her eyes — even though the building was abandoned, covered in brush and hidden behind barbed wire. Cows and burros were sleeping in the basement. But Neill had to have it.
"I worked on it for 50 years, and that's why it's in pretty good shape now," Neill said.
Neill said when Joe Duncan bought the house, he said, "Thank you for letting me buy the Trueheart house."
Neill responded, "I know it's the Trueheart house, but it took me 50 years to restore it. They lived in it 25 years after they built it, and then they sold it to someone. When my husband bought it for me, it had been abandoned for years."
Neill lived in the house when she was working for the state, as well as when she retired and began looking for ways to continue helping youth. The home housed her doll collection which numbered in the hundreds of dolls.
When Neill was working for the state in the mid-1960s, she heard about three children with health problems in Santa Elena, Mexico. The three children, a boy of about 14, his younger sister, and their baby brother, all needed to get to a hospital.
Neill convinced the Brewster County judge at the time to agree to use state funds to get the children across the border and to a hospital in El Paso. But convincing immigration officers was another story.
"Turns out the baby didn't have any papers at all," Neill said. "They weren't about to let him across."
So Neill and a friend from Presidio crossed into Mexico, got the baby, went to the Catholic Church, found a priest and had the baby baptized.
The immigration officer still didn't want to let them across, insisting the state would not pay for their health care and that the March of Dimes, which Neill had suggested would pay if the state did not, was for "our" children.
So Neill drove all the way back to Alpine and talked to a friend she knew would help out. He agreed to pay if it came down to it, and Neill finally had what it took to get the children across.
Years later, around the same time she began helping with Casa Hogar, Neill went back to Santa Elena to see what had become of the children. She was pleased to hear they had all grown — even the baby — and were scattered across Far West Texas and Mexico.
It was around that time that she heard about the orphans at Casa Hogar.
Neill's lived a full life. Full enough to finally settle down after 99 years, but Neill just keeps at it. She knits and crochets dish cloths and hot pads that she sells to raise money for Casa Hogar.
She's also been reading. Neill passionately suggested the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond as required reading.
She still travels to Casa Hogar occasionally to see the children, who she says are always excited to see her.
Donations for Casa Hogar can be sent to CHOI, P.O. Box 840, Alpine, Texas 79831.
Tags: Alpine, Casa Hogar, doll house, Fort Davis, Ojinaga, Teda Neill
Share |
Story filed under: Arts » Home Story Highlight
One Response to "Teda Neill nears a century of living, still helping children"
Martin Theophilus says:
August 5, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Thank you much for posting this. I loved interacting with Teda when I was a Financial Social Worker covering Brewster, Jeff Davis & Presidio counties in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s. She was so dedicated and inspired me to pursue Child Protective Services which I did in Ector County for 7 years. Please forward my message to her and thank her for all she has done. Martin
Reply
Mary Bell Lockhart says:
August 5, 2011 at 10:51 am
Great article, Ben, about a great lady. We were honored to have Teda stay with us during her visit.
|
Please visit the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording • Hot Air Ballooning