Claudia Teehan knows what a challenge is. Between caring for a
daughter with special needs, volunteering for the Community Pantry
and keeping a 10-year marriage together, she certainly has enough
on her plate.
Hollister – Claudia Teehan knows what a challenge is. Between caring for a daughter with special needs, volunteering for the Community Pantry and keeping a 10-year marriage together, she certainly has enough on her plate.
And on top of all that, she not only keeps her home tidy, but is welcoming a new puppy into her family, as well. Whew!
A Santa Clara native, Teehan, 43, has lived her entire life as a double above-knee amputee and has worn prosthetics since she was a child. Though she was one of only a few disabled children in school, she says she enjoyed a perfectly normal childhood, thanks to supportive family and friends.
“I’ve never known any different,” she said. “My parents always supported me in what I wanted to do. ‘No’ was not in my vocabulary. They told me I had an opportunity to educate people, to always answer their questions and be polite. By the time I was in high school I was just Claudia, like everyone else.”
Encouraged by her parents, Teehan joined a local 4-H chapter when she was 12, which she would stay involved in as a leader well into her 30s, – which satisfied her desire to work closely with youth.
“It’s a great program,” she said. “It gave me confidence in public speaking and in interacting with people in any situation – a lot of skills that I used as an adult.”
After high school, Teehan went to work briefly for a TV repair shop, before moving on to Hewlett Packard, where she worked for 13 and a half years, to the day. Starting in accounts payable and working her way up to an administrative assistant, Teehan enjoyed her work and was able to put her natural talent for organization to good use.
“I told my boss that every day was just like Christmas, because I never knew what would be in my box,” she said.
In 1995, Teehan went to the Saddlerack, a San Jose country western bar, on a whim to see a favorite performer. After the show, a man named Jeff approached her, assuming that she was waiting for her boyfriend. When he learned that Claudia was, in fact, single, the two arranged a date for the next evening and were married within 10 months.
The two toured the country in an RV for their honeymoon and decided that Teehan could quit work.
“I started putting in volunteer work at a local school, because my husband said he didn’t want me to sit around and eat bon bons all day,” she said. “I wanted to put my skills to good use.”
A year later, the couple had their daughter Emily, who was born with quadraspastic cerebral palsy.
Today, Emily is a bright first grader who enjoys school, and is well-known in her neighborhood.
“Everyone knows Emily,” said Teehan. “We can go to the grocery store or to Target and people will call out hello, and I may not know them, but they know Emily.”
While Emily is in school, Teehan volunteers with the Community Pantry, where she was named volunteer of the month in December.
She also helps run a silent auction for the annual Relay for Life and other local events supporting cancer research, to honor her mother’s four year struggle with ovarian cancer.
In her free time, Teehan enjoys the culinary arts – her chocolate truffles earned her a “Best of Show” award at the San Benito County Fair a few years ago. She also enjoys spending time with her neighbors and husband.
“I just focus on keeping things going, I’m the ‘family manager,'” she said. “And I think that’s the most important job. I put it on my resume and everything.”
