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6 sensational survivors who triumphed over disaster
Ebony, August, 2004 by Kevin Chappell
SOME made it to the top by overcoming tremendous odds. Others reached the pinnacle only to suffer a tragic setback that forced them to regroup, set new goals and rededicate themselves. Still others stared death in the face, and lived to tell about the experience. Together, they provide hope to those in similar situations. Separately, they are examples of how to keep going despite life's challenges. They never gave up--or gave in--and are living their lives with vigor that should inspire all.
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ACTOR DARYL(CHILL) MITCHELL can't remember anything about the 2001 motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. What he's been told is that the bike spun out from under him as he leaned into a curve and slid on some loose gravel. "They found me in a ditch with the bike on top of me. I woke up three days later in the hospital," he says. "I didn't remember anything." Weeks earlier, he had finished shooting the movie Black Knights, starring Martin Lawrence. Now he was lying in a hospital bed, going in and out of consciousness. He remembers the doctor's eerie words to him. "The doctor told me that I sustained some serious damage to my spinal cord, and that I severed some nerves, and it was a possibility that I would never walk again." Although he stayed positive, Mitchell admits that there was a time when he didn't know if he could make it without the use of his legs. "I was sitting there thinking to myself, 'How am I going to live like this?' Then I said to myself, 'Wait a minute. You're Black. Don't forget that. If you can survive that, you can definitely survive this.'" The comedic actor tries to walk every day, and every day he fights back the despair at his inability to use his legs. "You don't allow yourself to go there," says Mitchell, who, until last year co-starred with Tom Cavanaugh for three years on the prime-time show Ed. "I know a feeling of despair, of hurt, of disappointment," he says. "I know it dwells in my soul. It's got to be in there. I'm only human. But I don't allow myself to go there." The married father of three is working on a new sitcom and is "enjoying life more now than before the accident. I can stop and smell the roses now. Before, Delta Airlines was my cab. Now I watch my kids play. It's the little things in life. People who roll with me now slow down. I was speeding through life trying to keep up. Life's a whole different color now."
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TIONNE (T-BOZ) WATKINS of the platinum-selling trio TLC has had sickle cell anemia since she was a child. But she hasn't let the genetic blood disease stop her--or get her down. Diagnosed at age 8, she remembers being teased as a kid because she was thin and had to eat special foods. During her teen years growing up in Atlanta, she says she was a "sicko" who couldn't do what other kids were doing. She couldn't go swimming because the water was too cold. She had to drink special baby milk to strengthen her bones. "I felt ugly," she has said. It was this low self-esteem that years later inspired her to write a poem she titled, "Unpretty," which was later turned into a hit TLC song. It wasn't until her late teens that she sat herself down and decided: "OK, girl, you're just going to have to face this thing. Now suck it up and try to make the best of it." Even today, she struggles with the incurable disease. The 5-foot-2 singer--who in 2000 was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World"--was once hospitalized for a sickle cell-related spleen disorder. Bat even though a person affected with sickle cell has an average life expectancy of 40 years, she has maintained a positive outlook on life. "I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, because I don't feel sorry for myself." T-Boz has been in the music business for more than a decade, all the while struggling with a disease that leaves many victims so exhausted and wracked with pain they can barely get out of bed. Her fellow group members didn't know she had sickle cell until she collapsed during a concert and had to be taken to the hospital. "When you live with something like [sickle cell], it has to change your life, and hopefully for the better," she once said in an interview. "For me to survive, period, I have to have a positive attitude." The 34-year-old entertainer now works closely with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, motivating kids affected by the disease. "One thing I'm trying to teach kids that nobody ever taught me is that nobody's flawless," she has said. "If somebody says to me that I have bags under my eyes, that I look tired, well, honey, I am tired."
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What began as severe headaches turned out to be a potentially deadly cerebral blood clot for country music legend CHARLEY PRIDE. Earlier this year, the 66-year-old Pride underwent brain surgery at a Dallas hospital to remove a subdural hematoma that occurred after blood from a torn vessel collected between his brain and the skull. Before the headaches, the timeless music star had been in good health and had been performing at packed arenas throughout the country. The operation was successful, and after a couple of CAT scans, Pride went home with the understanding that he could expect a full recovery. Those close to the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee said he remained positive throughout. "He was never in any danger," says his manager John Daines. "He never has headaches, so when he began complaining about severe headaches, it was sort of a cue that something was wrong. So he had the procedure, has made a complete recovery and has returned to work to prepare for his upcoming tour." The son of sharecroppers, Pride was one of 11 children raised on a farm in Sledge, Miss. Known for his golden baritone voice, Pride started singing in the late 1950s. As a ballplayer with the Negro League's Memphis Red Sox, he could often be heard singing and playing guitar on the team bus ride between ballparks. Self-taught on a guitar bought at the age 14 from Sears Roebuck, Pride joined various bands onstage as he and the team traveled the country. After a failed tryout with the New York Mets, Pride cut two songs and later signed with RCA. During the last three decades, Pride has enjoyed 36 No.1 hit singles and has become the biggest Black country music star ever. His best known songs are "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" and "Kiss an Angel Good Morning."
