Faithful helper makes Ronald McDonald House of Dallas feel like home
By Lisa Petty
Spending the day with Emma Succar at the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas (RMHD) feels like coming home.
As she took us on a guided tour through rooms lovingly decorated for sharing meals, enjoying cozy movie nights, or reading aloud before bed, her enthusiastic pace belied the fact that she is 90 years young.
And, after more than 25 years of helping to support families of children receiving medical care in nearby hospitals, Miss Emma, as she is known, is more than just a familiar face. She is part of the family.
“It means a lot to me to be here,” said the longtime volunteer, who first came to Texas in 1959 from her native Denmark.
Neighborhood Spotlight
Park Cities
Where the Park Cities Stay Connected.
After marrying and raising her daughter in a Tudor cottage in Highland Park, she later lost her husband and sought a home away from home. She found it at RMHD.
“I no longer have any family here in Dallas, and I feel this is my family,” Succor said. “The staff and the people here are just wonderful. I love them.”
Midway through the tour, we met up in the kitchen with food services coordinator Phil Barry and a team from Southwest Airlines.
The comforting scents of warm spices and sautéed vegetables filled the air as volunteers prepared a lunchtime buffet of Spanish-inspired picadillo and all the fixings.
Emma took her usual post, which is akin to a “kitchen concierge,” zipping through cabinets and coolers to gather ingredients and tools for the volunteer chefs. She explained that cooking for the house is a bigger task these days, compared to her first years on the job.
“When we were in the old house, everybody did everything,” she said, referring to the original location, which opened in 1981.
Many locals may remember the first RMHD, located behind the former St. Paul Hospital. Open for 28 years, it grew from an initial size of 10 rooms to 30 rooms for visiting families.
After moving to the current Medical District location in 2009, and another expansion thereafter, the house now holds 86 family rooms and is the eighth largest in the world.
“So, when we moved up here and then we added the new wing, though I don’t cook, somehow I got to help a lot with the meals,” she recalled, laughing at the memory.
These days, at peak capacity, the kitchen may serve up to 100 parents and children, hailing from all parts of the country. Volunteers try to feature foods both comforting and traditional – and of course, at this time of year, special holiday meals are also on the menu.
As we wrapped up our tour, Emma delighted in sharing many additional loving details –a butterfly garden, a homemade art installation, the stained-glass window in the chapel – before taking a moment to pause before a mural of life-size photographs.
She pointed to smiling children and parents, calling them by name as she remembered their time together over the years.
And, though she’s still tucked up in her Tudor on Armstrong Avenue, Miss Emma is a big part of why this house feels like a home to all those special kids, too.
