People ask me why I’m doing this at my age. They say I’m too old to raise kids again.
But what are you supposed to do? They’re not my grandkids at this point. They’re my kids. I’m raising four of them. And my mom’s 84. She lives with us, too.
I raised four of my own. Three boys and a girl. I was a hairdresser at Snip N Clip in Lebanon. Then I became a 911 dispatcher in Webster County.
I was 37 when I went to the police academy at Fort Leonard Wood. I had four kids at home, and I was going through training with a bunch of soldiers in their 20s.
I’m only about five feet tall, and I weighed around 100 pounds. The soldiers were good to me. It was the instructors who were hard on me.
I eventually became the chief of police in Niangua. It’s a little town of about 400 people. I was chief there for eight or nine years.
I worked in the jail, too. Everyone called me Mama T.
You teach people respect from the beginning. This is how it’s going to be.
I spent about 25 years working in law enforcement and dispatch. I’d been to houses where children had to be removed. I knew how that process worked.
And then I had to deal with it in my own family.
My youngest son had been having problems. There came a point when I had to call the police on him myself.
I’d helped raise his two older children pretty much since they were born. There were four children altogether, and they’d stayed with me before. Sometimes they stayed with me during an investigation. But the case would close, and the kids would go back home.
In February of 2024, I was outside, and I guess Children’s Division had been trying to call me. I didn’t notice the missed calls until I got a call from the kids’ mom. She told me they were taking the kids and that I needed to call those numbers back right now.
I asked if the workers were still there with her. She said yes, so I told her to hand them the phone. They explained what was going on. I said, “Yes, just get them here.”
The last time the kids had stayed with me, I’d enrolled them in Conway schools, but they were back home two weeks later. So this time, when the caseworker came, I asked if I should enroll them again or just wait.
She told me to sign them up.
I knew then they were going to be with me for a while.
I was living with my boyfriend, and adding four kids to the mix was just too much. We’re still together, but we don’t live together anymore. When the kids came, I moved back to my house in Conway.
It’s the same house I grew up in. My parents bought it in 1976, when I was about 13.
I was still working as a police officer. I tried working part time on weekends, but those were 12-hour shifts. Nobody wants to babysit four kids for 12 hours.
So I retired.
I have legal guardianship of all four.
My oldest granddaughter had been taking care of her siblings for a long time. We’ve spent a lot of time convincing her that she doesn’t have to be the parent anymore. She can just be a kid.
And she’s doing so good. She’s making straight A’s. She’s playing softball, doing archery, and thinking about what she wants to do after high school.
The two older ones have been going to counseling. They’re working through things, and I’m so proud of how they’re doing.
The six year old is doing awesome, too. She loves school and watching kids’ shows on Netflix. Her big thing is being a princess. She was born three months early, but she hasn’t had any physical issues.
The youngest was born three months early, too. He started First Steps, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. He was two when he started walking.
Now he’s in preschool. I drive the preschool bus, so I take him and the other little ones to school and pick them up again. It’s perfect for me because I’m home when the kids are home.
Working with preschoolers is a little like working in the jail. You teach them how things are going to be from the beginning.
I wish people would teach their children to be kinder to kids who live with their grandparents. Not every child grows up living with their mom and dad, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re just kids.
Their dad calls two or three times a week, and their mom comes to visit. Sometimes we do things together, too.
We’re working on the house now. We’re turning the two-car garage into two more bedrooms. I’m so excited. It’s the same house my mom and dad raised us in, and now we’re making room for another generation.
I’ve still got a long way to go raising these kids. By the time the youngest graduates from high school, I’ll be in my 80s. They’re going to have to wheel me into graduation. But I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Teresa Alexander, Grandmother and Legal Guardian
Here's how this story is reaching our community.
Voices of Hope
Every person in this community carries a story worth telling. Voices of Hope features the real people of the Missouri Ozarks who show up for children and families, foster parents, caseworkers, volunteers, survivors, and neighbors who simply refused to look away.
Read more Voices of Hope stories →
