Jill Porter: A helping hand, a life reclaimed,a way to say thanks
IT WAS preposterous, really. When Joe Davis showed up to apply for a job at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, he was laughably unqualified.
IT WAS preposterous, really.
When Joe Davis showed up to apply for a job at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, he was laughably unqualified.
He was a middle-school drop-out who was borderline literate. He was a recovering addict and drug dealer whose souvenir of that life was a bullet in the back that left him a paraplegic. He was 30-something and had never worked a day in his life.
There was no reason for Lorraine Buchanan to hire him as the receptionist at the Spinal Cord Injury Center.
But Davis told her of his determination to turn his life around after a failed suicide attempt. And he asked her for a chance.
He said if she hired him, he'd never let her down.
She gave him the job.
That was 22 years ago.
Since then, Davis has gotten his GED, his college degree and a master's degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania - all while working full time.
He's a motivational speaker and a certified addictions counselor who's licensed in two states.
When he opened his own private counseling practice in July, he wrote me for a favor:
Could I help him thank Buchanan in a big, public way?
"None of what I do, none of who I am, would have been possible were it not for Lorraine Buchanan," he said.
"Everything I am, everything I do is to make good on my promise to her."
Buchanan, 57, calls herself a "suburban brat" - some people say she's "very white," she laughs - who grew up in Ambler and has no experience with the depraved urban culture that nearly destroyed Davis.
But Buchanan is pragmatic; she believed it would inspire spinal-cord patients to see a paraplegic working there.
She's also very stubborn.
"Friends call me the original Taurus," she said of the astrological sign of the bull.
So the more the staff objected, the more compelled she felt to hire Davis.
And yes, she's a "bleeding- heart liberal" who believes that "everybody deserves a chance."
"He didn't have any other chances," said Buchanan. "He didn't have any skills. As a matter of fact, as time went on, I realized just how few skills he had."
Not only couldn't he use a computer or even a phone with more than one line - he had no life skills, either.
He didn't know "what to wear, when to get up in the morning, how to get to work," Buchanan said.
He didn't know you couldn't yell at people who called on the telephone.
"Obviously, it was frustrating because he didn't know anything, and that level of unawareness was flabbergasting," she said.
But he never resisted correction and was always eager to improve.
Buchanan knows that Davis credits her with his success - and begs to differ.
"Everything he's done, he's done because he is who he is. Yes, I encouraged him to go back and get his GED and then to keep on going, but he did the work - he's the one.
"And he did it all while not exactly being healthy. There were numerous complications of his spinal-cord injury. There was more than one occasion we didn't know if Joe was going to live.
"He's quite a guy. Once he turned that corner, he turned it."
Buchanan left Jefferson 17 years ago and runs a consulting business from her Blue Bell home.
She and Davis stay in touch,but don't see each other often.
She did come to the opening of his private counseling practice - Restoration Services - a bright one-room office in a new building on Tulpehocken Street near Ogontz Avenue, where he sat and told me stories last week.
Davis is a charming raconteur,which no doubt helps in his job as director of Magee Rehabilitation Hospital's "Think First" injury-prevention program. He talks at schools and other forums around the city.
"He's one of our best," said his supervisor, Ron Siggs, a Magee vice president.
Davis is indeed an inspiring soul and I'm happy to help him thank Buchanan in this column.
But an unusual set of circumstances enabled him to thank her in a more direct way.
Buchanan suddenly lapsed into a coma in November 2003, after contracting chicken pox.
She was in the coma for two months. When she came out of it, "I couldn't move my hands or my feet and I was on a ventilator," she said.
Buchanan was transferred to Magee for rehabilitation, and was there for 6 1/2 weeks.
"Joe was at my bedside every day," she said. *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns: