The

Unstoppable

Ms. Davis

In every aspect of the word, Ms. Jeanette Davis is unstoppable. When I first met Ms.

Davis she was in her daughter’s apartment with her volunteer from A Helping Hand,

Rodneysha. The tightly drawn blinds fought valiantly to envelope the space in darkness, but Ms.

Davis’s warm compassion effortlessly filled the room with light. She danced so joyously, you

would hardly believe her moves were limited to the space of a wheelchair. She loves humanity

so wholeheartedly, you momentarily forgot the overwhelming adversity she has faced in her 58

years. In every aspect of the word, Ms. Davis is unstoppable, and she’s more than willing to

share the secret recipe of her unstoppable spirit with you.

Ms. Davis’s first ingredient to living unstoppably is a heaping scoop of busyness. Ms.

Davis is always on the move and loves to create things in her freetime. When she lived in a

house, colorful gardens and floral arrangements were some of her favorite creations.

“I was always working in my flower yard. You put the pretty colors out: the yellow, the

orange, the Halloween colors,” Ms. Davis said.

Although her arthritis pains never stopped her from keeping busy, she has adjusted her

activities to compensate for the progression of this disease. Now, Ms. Davis enjoys shopping as

well as creating holiday wreathes and décor pieces for her home. Rodneysha helps make Ms.

Davis’s on-the-go lifestyle possible by driving her to where she needs to be. Whether it’s to the

mall, the grocery store or a haircut, Rodneysha is able to facilitate Ms. Davis’s independent

lifestyle.

The second, and certainly most important, step in making your spirit unstoppable is

developing a heart full of love for others. Within the first five minutes of meeting Ms. Davis, she

will not only know your loftiest dreams, but she will have already become a support system

you can lean on to make those dreams possible. This was evident not only in how she became a

cheerleader for my goals so quickly, but also in how deeply she supported Rodneysha’s

aspirations.

Ms. Davis talked lovingly about how Rodneysha, a pre-medical student athlete at North

Carolina Central University, was going to be a doctor one day. She also wove into the discussion

just how proud she was of “her girl,” and how she can’t wait to see her play on the basketball

court sometime in the future. Ms. Davis told us all just how proud our generation of women

made her, and that she expects only the best from us. This expectation included keeping

ourselves healthy. Ms. Davis urged us to do what we could now, in our younger years, to avoid

facing the physical challenges she does every day.

“Take care of yourself now…Arthritis can set in, so you do what you have to do to take

care of yourself. Take your vitamins,” Ms. Davis said.

Finally, Ms. Davis’s secret ingredient: optimism. This trait developed very early in Ms.

Davis’s life after some constructive criticism completely altered her personality. It’s difficult to

believe that Ms. Davis was once extremely shy given her incredibly lively personality today.

“The kids at my school they said, ‘You wouldn’t talk to anybody! I liked you but you

wouldn’t say anything. You’d walk down the hall like you didn’t see anybody,’” Ms. Davis

recounted.

This criticism might have hurt other’s feelings, but Ms. Davis used it constructively to

overcome her paralyzing shyness. She can now easily hold a conversation with anyone.

Ms. Davis joked, “Girl I can get it on, I could talk to a horse,’ how’re ya hooves, you doin’

alright?’”

This relentless optimism prevents Ms. Davis from allowing her disability to define her,

and it leads her to believe that others don’t define her that way either. When asked what

misconceptions others might have about those with disabilities, she paused thoughtfully before

answering.

“She can’t do anything…because she’s disabled,” Ms. Davis said.

Her words hung heavily in the air, clearly weighing deeply on her. However, her

optimism quickly qualified her answer to truly reflect her optimistic outlook on humanity.

“But not everyone’s that way. I try not to put myself in that situation and I’ve never

looked at people that way,” Ms. Davis said definitively.

Ms. Davis’s active nature, loving soul, and optimistic outlook on life make her an

unstoppable force in everything she does. A Helping Hand is extremely proud to support Ms.

Davis in overcoming her everyday obstacles, and allow her younger adult companions to learn

from her incredible life. It is because of individuals like Ms. Davis that nonprofits such as ours

will continue to serve as a catalyst for unstoppable spirits, who just need a helping hand.