Habitat Answers the Call for Schulenburg Senior
Fayette County Habitat for Humanity is celebrating the completion of an Aging in Place project for Ms. Bennie Lou Liere of Schulenburg, helping the 79-year-old homeowner remain safe, comfortable, and independent in her home.
Like many older adults, Ms. Liere began experiencing mobility challenges that made some tasks increasingly difficult. The stairs leading into her home had become painful to navigate as the years took their toll on knees that once carried her through long days of work on the dairy. Growing up on a farm and later working alongside her husband, Carl, on their dairy farm in Cypress, Ms. Liere knows firsthand what hard work looks like.
The same determination continues today. Unable to afford a vehicle, Ms. Liere relies on a three-wheeled bicycle to travel around Schulenburg, making trips to the grocery store, food pantry, and wher-ever else she needs to go. Independence has always been important to her, and despite the challenges that come with age, she’s determined to keep it.
First Habitat called on their old friends at The Texas Ramp Project to install an accessibility ramp, eliminating the daily struggle of climbing stairs. Habitat volunteers then enclosed her front porch, replaced the collapsing back porch, replaced a missing window, relocated her mailbox to shorten the walk for a daily chore, and replaced a large section of damaged skirting around the house. The missing skirting had become an unlikely gathering place for neighborhood cats whose nightly “opera performance” beneath the home often interrupted Ms. Liere’s sleep. Today, she enjoys safer access to her home and much quieter nights.
For Ms. Leire however, the greatest gift wasn’t the repairs themselves. It was the people who made them possible.
“I appreciate the hard work those boys did, and I know what hard work is. Daddy had me doing square bales on the trailer when I was a little girl. And when I got married, I married a farmer who had a dairy,” Ms. Liere said with a laugh. “I told Carl it wasn’t in the marriage contract that I had to get up at two o’clock in the morning to get those cows to the barn for him to milk. But I appreciate what y’all do, y’all worked so hard.”
Ms. Liere fondly recalls marrying Carl in a barn top a gooseneck trailer with a honky tonk band providing the music. They spent 40 years together before his passing.
“It’s hard not having him around,” she said.
Today, thanks to the Aging in Place project, Ms. Liere can continue living safely and independently in the home where she is building the next chapter of her life after Carl’s passing. With a safer home she can continue the routines that matter most without the pain without the pain and risk once created. Just as importantly, she knows she has someone to call should a home emergency arrive.
“I think they’re life savers, because they saved me. I mean, I feel more safe sitting on the porch and being home. I just appreciate everyone so much. I wish I had money. I do. I don’t want to be rich. I just want to live independently.”
For Fayette County Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Kenny Couch, the success of the project extends far beyond repairs.
“The repairs on Ms. Bennies home went wonderfully, but the true mission of Habitat didn’t happen on the porch or under the house, it happed around her dinner table. Over the last few months, I had the privilege of sitting with Ms. Bennie, listening to stories about growing up a farm girl, playing high school football, falling in love with Carl, working a dairy together, and faithfully caring for him at the end of his life. Those conversations reminded me that every person who calls Habitat has already lived an extraordinary story long before we ever arrive with a truck full of tools. We may come because someone needs a safer home, but we leave having gained something stronger than simple friendship.”
Couch believes those relationships are what truly define Habitat’s mission.
“When someone like Ms. Bennie call Habitat, she’s somebody else’s grandma. Then you spend time together, share kolaches, laugh, hear stories, and before long she reminds you of your own grandma.
Eventually you realize you’ve been thinking about it all wrong. She isn’t somebody else’s grandma, she’s our grandma. That’s what community is. We really are one family, and family watches out for one another. That’s the Fayette County we’re trying to build.”
Whether you swing a hammer, prepare a meal for volunteers, or simply encourage a neighbor who needs help to reach out, you can become part of a story like Ms. Bennie’s.
Every volunteer, every donor, and every partner makes it possible for more seniors to remains safely in the homes they love while preserving the independence they’re worked a lifetime to earn.
To learn more about Fayette County Habitat for Humanity please visit www.fchfh. org or leave them a message at 210-816-0942