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In 1966 a mother of five,
Rose McGarrigle, relocated to Austin, Texas from Philadelphia, realized
the desperate need of parents with severely challenged children,
both physically and mentally, for good, conscientious day care.
She discussed this need with the powers in charge at that time,
got very little encouragement, and approached her husband, a retired
Master Sergeant, who obliged and closed in the carport of their
West Austin home. Within weeks a red Volkswagen bus started rolling
through all parts of Austin, collecting youngsters with a variety
of challenges and ages into a pleasant sunny room with music, toys
and love. Hop House, a licensed day care facility for the mentally
challenged was born and she was titled “the director”,
a term very strange sounding to her.
Within months, the neat, sunny room was outgrown and Austin churches
came to the rescue. From the Austin Friends Meeting to the Crestview
Methodist Church, help was offered and the number of children grew.
A kindly professor at the University of Texas informed her that
she had a tiger by the tail. Her first board of directors resigned
because of concern for her five children, whom they considered short
changed. (Several day care situations were becoming impossible for
the parents to handle.)
Within two years her four-bedroom house accommodated
three living in youngsters, doubling up with her children, and a
helper. |
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The search was on for a large house to accommodate a combination
of day care and residential care. Once again, help from the city
was refused.
A new board of directors was formed and a parent offered a “fixer
upper” house in the outskirts of Austin. The renovation of the old
two-story house was truly a labor of love for all involved and it
served the children well for eight years.
During these difficult times, the question of “why” was often asked
of her, even by her own mother in her native Germany. The old answers,
“it was need”, “I enjoyed it”, “it is a challenge”, no longer sufficed
and an honest answer needed to be given to a family friends and
community.
She grew up in Germany, the daughter of a well-known performer,
raised by her grandparents who owned a theater in Dresden. War time
found her in Berlin, serving as a nurses aid in a Red Cross facility,
caring for the terminally ill and displaced. She was seventeen and
the facility scared her. It had locked, barred windows, huge wards,
and was a very lonely place to be.
During the months in this facility, farmers from the surrounding
villages would come to visit with questions. “Nurse, what happened
to this or that person, who lived here for years?” When she denied
knowledge and asked why the person had lived there, the answer was
always the same – he was slow, or crippled and died of pneumonia.
Even at seventeen that raised questions too horrible to contemplate.
She eventually left, in order to join a sisterhood of nurses, and
became a nursing student. The end of the war brought a miraculous
unification with her family. The whole family settled in Bamberg,
Germany, in the American occupation zone. She met a German psychiatrist
who directed a facility for the mentally ill outside of this lovely
old town. Where he housed a handful of mentally challenged children
that he saved from destruction during Hitler’s regime. The elderly
nuns in charge of this facility were less than excited about their
young charges and turned them over to the woman’s care – her first
meeting with a mentally challenged person.
Thirty-eight years later Hope House, officially Casa Esperanza, Inc.
is located in Liberty Hill, Texas on five rambling acres following
a creek line, in a Mexican style home with lots of joy and sunshine.
A pet donkey, chickens, guinea hens, dogs, cats, and a variety of
parrots add to the country atmosphere. A heated pool, a therapy
room with a whirlpool, and a motor home to transport the residents to and from
a variety of community recreational facilities
are instrumental to adding to the quality of life. A school bus
transports appropriate youngsters into the local public school system.
Rose McGarrigle, the woman who has founded and directed this facility for these
38 years had some very firm convictions: Mental challenge, even
severe, does not have to spell misery, loneliness, isolation, and
chemical or physical restraints.
It can be happiness, fun, freedom of movement, even in a wheel chair.
It can mean helping others more challenged, loving others and receiving
love. In other words, mental and physical challenge does not need
to be depressing and wearing. It can be a blessing and joyful if
the community in which we live accepts everyone as child of God,
created in His image.
Very active involvement of her sons and daughter and an extremely
dedicated staff aided her in her efforts. Hope House has
been the recipient of very generous help from various Texas foundations
– The Moody Foundation, The Ewing Halsell Foundation, The Hoblitzelle
Foundation, The Lowe Foundation, The Lola Wright Foundation and
The Frucella Foundation and the Pierce Runnells Foundation. Their generosity, combined with a dedicated
parent body, has helped create a truly pleasant home for 40 severely
challenged residents ranging in age from 4 to 48, living in harmony
as a big family that has been richly blessed.
Rose instilled in us all, Gods love for these children. She worked every day until her very last Jan. 1, 2003.
On this day she asked the workers to take care of "her kids" and left the facility in the capable hands of her
devoted staff and under the direction of Ginger Hernandez an assistant that trained with Rose for over 10 years. |
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