Published: July 04, 2008 03:18 am            

Yankee Doodle Sweetheart

Immigrant trades persecution for freedom in U.S.

PALESTINE — Teodora Mezo feels very blessed to live in the country that she does with the freedoms she has. And as an immigrant who escaped from Communist Romania in 1969, she understands more than many what having that freedom costs.

Born on July 4, 1926 — the day Americans celebrate their independence — Mezo and her family eventually were forced to leave their village in 1940 when Hitler took over Hungary and gave the Nazis one-half of Transylvania.

After many years of evading the Nazi’s and anti-Semitism, Mezo left a refugee center in Italy for the United States in 1969. In 1979, she became an American citizen.

The price for her freedom was high, Mezo said. She had to leave behind her home, a pending career as a doctor, both parents, a daughter and her first grandchild.

“I will never forget the feeling I had when I first stepped on to American soil,” she said. “I remember everyone looking at me and smiling. They all seemed so welcoming.”

When arriving in the United States, Mezo and her third husband, Steve, settled in Dallas. Mezo, a registered nurse, immediately went looking for a job and landed her first one at East Dallas Hospital.

It was at that time she also made her first friends in John and Cleo Callahan who took her under their wing and invited her to church at Gaston Avenue Baptist Church.

“Cleo and John included me in their family,” Mezo said. “Sometimes it surprised me that I could be so attached to someone from another part of the world, even with such poor communication.”

“God truly works in miraculous ways.”

Mezo worked in the Dallas hospital for 32 years, eventually making her home in Palestine. She eventually reunited with her daughter and two grandsons, with the eldest grandson now living in the Houston area.

“Lucian (Luke) graduated from TVCC and UT Tyler with honors and now works in criminal justice in Houston,” Mezo said. “I am so proud of him and I hope that he will follow in my footsteps and remember what it means to be free.”

After undergoing treatment for leukemia over the past several months, Mezo made good use of her time by ministering to others with her hands — crocheting camouflage caps for soldiers serving overseas.

“As I make each cap I say a prayer for the soldier who will be wearing it,” Mezo said. “That he will come back home safely to his family.

“It is the greatest thing to fight for your country’s freedom and the freedom of others,” she added. “It is one of noblest things one can do for their country.

“I feel blessed that I can do this for them in return. My heart goes out to them.”

Being an immigrant, Mezo said she has faced some challenges, especially with illegal immigration becoming a hot issue among Americans. She feels strongly, she said, that those who want to become citizens should do it within the law; that it is a price one should pay for freedom.

“I am so grateful to be living in the United States,” Mezo said. “It is such a blessed place for everyone who lives here — I try to remind those who were born here not to forget that.

“I love the American people and this country,” she added. “I am not rich in money, but I am rich in friends and in love.

“That is something only God can give, and I give Him all the glory for everything.”

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Mary Rainwater may be reached via e-mail at mrainwater@palestineherald.com.

        

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