Geronima Ortiz always wanted a little girl. So when a niece became pregnant and decided to give up her child, Ortiz offered to take her in.
And so began a long life of mutual love and dependence between a mother and daughter."From the time she brought me home from the hospital, she's been my strength," said Irma Dudley, the adopted daughter.A single mother of six boys -- Geronima's husband died in 1962, three years before Irma's birth -- Ortiz worked as best she could, washing dishes at a restaurant or cleaning rooms at a hotel in Marathon, a tiny town in far West Texas."It's amazing what she did," Dudley said. "She always worked hard and did whatever it took to get by."On Sundays, they watched the Dallas Cowboys play football."That's all we knew," Dudley said. "My mom is all about the Cowboys."They eventually relocated to Fort Stockton, about 50 miles north, where mother, daughter and other members of the Ortiz family still live.It has been a tough but rich life, and her mother taught her important lessons growing up "that made me who I am," Dudley said."Everything I am, it's because of her," said Dudley, now a mother and grandmother herself.Ortiz is 91 and suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She spends a lot of time with her daughter, relying on Dudley much the way her daughter has leaned on her."We're always together now," Dudley said. "She won't do anything without me."They'll be together today, too, for a special family visit to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, where Ortiz will see her first live Cowboys game."I can't wait," Ortiz said Saturday morning as her family prepared for the seven-hour drive from Fort Stockton to Arlington. "I don't know what else to say."Tickets to the Cowboys-Browns game are a gift from Dudley, a way of saying thanks to her mom."I owe her so much, and I wish there was so much I could do," Dudley said. "But she's a huge Cowboys fan, I mean you can't believe, so she's going to her first game."Ortiz has oodles of memorabilia that she has collected over the years -- jerseys, jackets, stickers, mugs, even a shower curtain -- and never misses a game on TV."Anything and everything that says Dallas Cowboys, she has," Dudley proclaims. "And whenever they're not playing well she says, 'I should have had a talk with them, I should have had a talk with them.'"Hopefully, for the fan decked out in a Cowboys T-shirt and jacket, sitting on Row 13 in Section 404, she won't have to "have a talk" today.Lee Williams, 817-390-7840Twitter @leewatson
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