Message to Dave and Emma...

Dave, here are a few stories about one of my Life Heroes - Max Mendoza. Now you can put Emma on that list too – the “hardcore.” Like your pan-pacific trip last week: Heroic. Maybe you can share with her – maybe not, maybe later. She made me think of him a lot over the last few days.

I think you’ve met Max, the guitar player at St Julie’s. I recall that you went to brunch with us a few years ago…

I don’t know if you remember about how he fell off the roof while building a Habitat for Humanity house in Tijuana?

Well, he did so. Head first. (In fact, I know that we talked about this while working on your house…)

Max was un-insured at the time; and still, somehow, was turned away from the Red Cross in Mexico. (Triage perhaps.)

No one knew what to do, he was barely conscious … In fact, Father Jon read him his last rites as they drove away - back to San Jose in his van - 10+ hours in a car.
Falling head first, he sustained a bad head injury. When I saw him one week later, his head and face were still swollen like a giant pumpkin. He pushed a tooth through his lower lip.

It could’ve been worse. If he didn’t break the fall with his arms, he probably would have died. However, this broke his left arm.

The church community reacted immediately. They raised nearly $3,000 for Max’s bills in the first week, and others in the church (healthcare workers) donated their time and connections to diagnose and continue to care for him.

He was told that he broke his arm in such a way that he would never play guitar again.

Two months later I played at a church festival with Max.

People there started calling him Lazarus.

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Max’s life has had tragedy no doubt, but he keeps going (that’s why he is my hero). His first wife died at 40 of cancer, but Max fully raised their kids. Then he started a second family.
So, falling off of the roof was not his first time facing, and recovering from darkness.

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Once he told me about a story when he was 20 years old, early 1960’s, living in Riverside, Ca. (Think gnarly orange picking industry… The ingredients they don’t show on the juice cartons, or on the crate art.)

Max’s sister was staying at home because she got into a fight with her boyfriend.

Well the boyfriend came to the house one night, drunk; wanting to take her away. Max was at the door defending his sister and he got beat severely with a tire iron.

At the hospital, the doctor cried because he realized he had delivered Max some 20 years earlier…

This was not the first time this had happened to that doctor either.

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Max’s advice:
· “Concentrate on healing.”
· “Have the will.” ("Con Ganas," as the Mexicans would say.)