Teresa's life reads like a fairy tale, just without the happily ever after ending we have come to expect. Teresa grew up in a shack in Tijuana, with her mother and four brothers. Her mother re-married and had more children. Several years later her step father died, and the family split; with her mother and older brothers all looking for work. For a time Teresa worked as a model at the local TV station in Tijuana, before ending up in LA with her mother, who had found work as a nanny for two small children.
The mother of the children was a buyer for a large department store and was killed in a plane crash some time later. In true story book fashion, when she was only 19, Teresa married the wealthy widower, Joseph. They had two girls of their own, and Teresa loved being a wife and mother to the four children. Joseph was intelligent, with 3 PhD's, and worked for the government, meaning they moved around a bit, and even lived overseas. Teresa lost all contact with her mother and siblings, and assimilated into the American way of life; becoming a US citizen, speaking only English, and living the "American Dream"
The dream began to unravel when Joseph died. Teresa lived with her grown daughters for a time, but began to have problems with making poor decisions. When a death in her family brought her back in contact with her siblings, she found out a very sad truth: her mother and several brothers had Huntington's disease, a fatal genetic disease that attacks the brain in the areas of movement, memory, and emotions. Teresa refused to be tested or even see a doctor, even though she was beginning to show some early symptoms of the disease. Eventually she ran away.
She ended up in San Diego living with a younger sister, until she took off again, this time to Tijuana. Things did not go well with her brothers in Tijuana and she disappeared again, this time no one heard from her for three years.
We met Teresa a month ago on a rainy Wednesday night. She showed up at the "Agua Viva" mission looking for a place to sleep. The ladies at church recognized her as a lady who lives in abandoned buildings in the Ojo de Agua community; they have even given her food in the past. With the cold and rain, we could not let her sleep outside, so we decided to let her sleep in one of the Sunday School room for three days until we could find a better place for her to stay.
When we met Teresa she had very unusual movements in her arms and legs, but seemed to be clear minded. When we asked her if she had any family, she began to tell us her life story, in perfect English. She gave us names and dates of all the important events of her life, however she had no phone numbers and only a partial address for one of her daughters in Texas. She also did not know where any of her documents were to be able to return to the US.
We know of a shelter for Seniors in Tijuana, and although they are over crowded, they agreed to let Teresa stay there while we tried to contact her family. On that Saturday we drove Teresa to the shelter and she gave us even more details of her incredible life. We were not sure whether any of her story was true, it seemed like a fairy tale. Using a search engine for genealogy research we were able to validate all of her story, and even find a current address for her daughter. We were unable to get any phone numbers so we wrote a letter and waited. Three days later her daughter called us crying; they had given up all hope of ever finding her alive!
A week later one of her daughters, a sister, a brother, niece and several family friends went with us to visit her at the shelter. It was a tearful reunion!
However, it seems she had all of her documents with her and they have been lost or stolen. Her family is trying to get the needed permission to take her to the US. They are also having to make difficult decisions about where she will live, and what kind of care she will need. Please pray for Teresa who is frustrated at being left at the shelter, pray also for her daughters and siblings as they gather the needed documents and make decisions about her future.
