Updated: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1997 at 22:44 CST Emmitt pays surprise visit to dying woman's classroom
By Dave Lieber Star-Telegram
Theresa Neil carries a list of her top wishes to be fulfilled in her lifetime. They are the heartfelt dreams of a woman fighting a battle against cancer.
Neil wanted to teach her 12-year- old son, Ryan, long division. Ryan can now divide.
She wished to teach her 7-year- old daughter, Sarah, to read. Sarah can read.
She wanted to instruct her 15- year-old daughter, Candice, how to drive a car. Candice can drive.
And Neil wanted to take guitar lessons. Check that one off, too.
Her list also declares: "Meet EMMITT SMITH of the Dallas Cowboys." There wasn't a check next to that one.
Until now.
Yesterday, in a day that the Glenview Elementary School teacher and her fifth-grade students will never forget, the Cowboys star running back walked through Neil's classroom door and calmly asked, "How's everybody doing?"
Neil's screams of surprise and joyous delight rang through the halls of the Richland Hills school.
"I'm going to have a heart attack!" she exclaimed. "Oh, my God!"
Smith stood by shyly, watching the uproar around him.
The children in the class leapt from their chairs in amazement. Some cried with their teacher, and others stood gawking at the smiling football star.
"My dream!" Neil exclaimed. "How did this come about?"
Sue Thompson, a food preparer in the school cafeteria, pointed at me. I pointed back at Thompson. Neil hugged us both.
Weeks ago, Thompson called me about Neil's unfulfilled wish. Neil was her friend, and she was determined to make it happen.
I called Cowboys public relations director Rich Dalrymple, then sent him the moving articles by Star- Telegram reporter Carlos Illescas and the unforgettable images by Star-Telegram photographer Helen Jau. Dalrymple promised to talk with Smith.
Smith didn't hesitate. He promised to make a surprise visit to Neil's class after working out at Valley Ranch yesterday morning.
Emmitt Smith and Theresa Neil, two great heroes, deserved to meet each other. And Neil's 22 students deserved to share the moment with them.
Aside from Smith, Neil calls these children her heroes. They make a difference in her life. They help her carry on.
Those little heroes reveled yesterday in Smith's arrival, as excited as if they were celebrating a touchdown by No. 22.
"We are so special," Neil told the class after she and the children caught their breath. "See? You get cancer, and everybody does everything for you. I can't get over this. Emmitt, this is so great of you to go out of your way."
It can't be easy for these 22 students to watch Neil, 34, as she slowly dies. She shares almost everything with her students, who have been greatly touched by their teacher's travails. Some get angry and frustrated. Those who have had relatives die of cancer are more accepting. All these fifth-graders are learning lessons about life.
Yesterday, Smith helped put those lessons in grand perspective for Neil's students. He patiently signed autographs for each child ("Best wishes, Emmitt Smith 22"), then, in a wonderful talk, explained why his visit meant as much to him as it did to them:
"I wish I could come here under better circumstances," he began. He gets many requests to visit sick children, he said, but he had never received one from a dying adult.
"I admire you a great deal because you have a lot of courage," he told Neil. "And you kids, look at her, because she's a strong woman. It takes a strong person to understand the situation she's going through.
"To come to school on a day-to- day basis and make sure you guys are learning -- and coming in here with a smile on her face -- must be very tough.
"Playing football is very easy compared to what she's going through. Doing what I do is very easy compared with what she's going through. I don't know that I would have the courage to do what she's doing right now. So I admire her greatly."
Neil stood across the room with tears in her eyes. Her students, now quiet, hung on to Smith's every word.
Smith praised Neil's inner-self and her love for her students.
"That, right there, is what really got me here," he said. He acknowledged that he, too, was caught up in the feelings of the moment. Smith pulled off his ball cap and showed everyone that he was sweating, partly from his own emotions. Comparing himself to Neil, he joked, "My hair is short, too."
Neil, who has lost her hair from chemotherapy treatments, led everyone in elated laughter.
"I want you guys to look at her and take something from her," Smith said. "Because she's going to leave a lot with you. Your memories of this teacher and this day are going to stay with you for a long time.
"No matter how old you get, you're going to look back and remember this day. And this day is a very special day. Not only for her, but for you guys. And for me.
"This is the first time for me. I've dealt with kids dying, and I've had some to pass on. And when that happens, it touches me. . . . When they passed on, a part of me went on with them. I felt the grief as well."
Every eye watched Smith, and every ear listened as Smith praised Neil for her unwillingness to quit.
"Obstacles are going to fall in your way," he said. "In the classroom, math is going to get hard. English is going to get hard. But to have the mental and the inner strength to keep pressing on -- regardless of what your back is up against -- is really going to get you through. Sometimes pick yourself out of the first person and start thinking of other people aside from yourself.
"Thank you for inviting me out. It's a day that's going to stay with me for the rest of my life.
"God bless you," Smith said, looking up to Neil the way she often has looked up to him while watching him on television.
"Are we blessed or what?!" Neil asked. As the children murmured agreement, she added, "No matter what's given to you in life, you take it and say, `What can I do with this now? How can I make a difference in my life?' "
"I have one last request," Smith interrupted. "I want to take a picture with the whole group." He wanted the photograph, he told them, for the wall of his home.
The teacher and the football player sat close, their arms around each other. The children gathered in close.
Neil smiled so brightly that her mood lit up the room. And her heroes loved seeing Neil so fulfilled.
"I'm not usually a Cowboys fan, but I guess I am now," student Danyell Carson said.
"I think this is the best day of our lives," Alan Lugo agreed.
Outside the class, Smith looked as if he had scored the game- winning touchdown in the Super Bowl.
How did he feel?
"Looking at a person in the face today, and tomorrow they might be gone -- you just cherish the moment you have with people," he said. "I don't know what I did for this lady today, but hopefully it was something special."
Theresa Neil said it best:
"Wow."
Dave Lieber is a columnist for the Star-Telegram/Northeast.
� 1997 Fort Worth Star-Telegram