The Tribune

WHEN customers line up at McDonald’s this month, they will be offered more than the usual fare. They will have the opportunity to help the family of a hero who has spent years helping others.

Some will know the man they are helping, Andre Chappelle. Many in the country will know of him for the story of his life is a remarkable turnaround of rising from down and out to heights of hope and faith, from saving himself from a life on the streets to helping others discover their inner beauty and strength.

It is also the story of how one woman’s refusal to turn her back on someone others advised her to ignore changed the lives of hundreds.

Mr Chappelle first met McDonald’s franchise owner Earla Bethel at the Oakes Field store where the parking lot that he called home was.

“When the rain came, it drenched him. When the sun shone, it dried him,” said Mrs Bethel. “He was living on the streets, but from the first time that my daughter met him and told me how he held the car door open for her and told her then boyfriend that a gentleman always opens the door for a lady, I knew there was something different about this human being. Disenfranchised, yes. But there was something so compelling … I could not put my hand on it at the time. What immediately came to mind was “But for the Grace of God go I”.

Mrs Bethel insisted that restaurant staff feed Mr Chappelle. The employees were not thrilled at the idea of encouraging him to stick around. He was dirty and smelly. He might discourage customers, they said, in spite of the fact that he always opened the door for clients with a smile.

However, their protestations were overruled. Feed him whenever he shows up, she said. And in time, Mr Chappelle took on a sense of proprietorship, naming himself CEO, monitoring and reporting if a manager left a light on overnight or a door needed to be repaired. In exchange for information provided, he asked for money but she steadfastly refused, continuing to feed him instead, and after his mother passed away, providing him with changes of clothing.

“McDonald’s only closes one day a year - Christmas,” said Mrs Bethel. “I do not know how he found out where I live, but the week before Christmas Day 2009, he showed up at my front door.” The housekeeper was horrified at the wreck of a human who stood there claiming he was a friend of Mrs Bethel’s. Before she could shut the door in his face, Mrs Bethel heard the voices, came to the door, reassuring the housekeeper that this was a friend.

“He brought me a Christmas gift, a large beautiful bromeliad he had found ‘In Da Bush’. It still blooms every holiday season,” said Mrs Bethel.

According to Mr Chappelle, it was that very Christmas Day that he experienced an epiphany in his McDonald’s parking lot. Realising that Christmas was all about family, he recognised how lonely he was and understood that if he did not save himself soon, it would be too late. He had spent 20 years on the streets, but his life as a self-sufficient Jack-of-All-Trades who called himself a poet, landscape artist, mechanic and comedian, was about to end. Within days and with the help of Dianne Stewart, Gandhi Pinder and Mrs Bethel, he was on his way to Florida to be reunited with his sister, Coleen, and his niece.

The man who had lost both parents at a young age and lost track of his only immediate family, a sister living in the US, now had a purpose in life. He returned to his home country to help others who were going through what he had endured. He knew how they felt because he had been there. He knew how they spoke because he had uttered the same words, made the same excuses, blamed the same ‘others’. He could have stayed in the States, but felt compelled to return to the Bahamas to help others. As he put it, “There are millions of people of who had a past like me in the US. I felt I could have a greater impact in changing lives if I returned home.”

On January 19, 2010, six months after he had left for the US, Mr Chappelle was back in Nassau, moving by faith, with no place to stay. He asked Mrs Bethel if he could stay with her until Teen Challenge made the necessary arrangements to provide housing for him. She welcomed him without hesitation, with the full support of her husband.

Mr Chappelle spent a year at Teen Challenge assisting Eric Fox as a mentor and counsellor for “At Risk Boys” at the Marshall Road Center. Mrs Bethel supported “Men of Faith” in bringing 40 boys from Governor’s Harbour High School in Eleuthera so they could hear the counsellor’s accounts of recovery firsthand. Happily, these stories got most of those ‘at risk’ boys back on track.

Mr Chappelle was a resource unlike any the local community had ever had. He had grown up behind the gates of exclusive Lyford Cay, had enjoyed a fine private school education, had been hooked on drugs and alcohol and when he could no longer afford to support his habit legally, resorted to whatever it took to get what he needed, but always stopped short of harming anyone. Someone once dubbed him the ‘Caucasian itinerant’.

But from the time he decided to become clean, he dedicated himself to helping others beat their demons just as he had beaten his. He headed programmes at Teen Challenge, was recruited by the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Ministry of Education to assist with conflict resolution and anger management sessions. Mr Chappelle also counselled individuals (including employees at McDonald’s) and led group sessions, including becoming the director of The Family: People Helping People, a clinic started by Dr David Allen on Blue Hill Road for those who could not afford his private practice services.

Mr Chappelle was the creator and promotor of a prisoners’ art show that won rave reviews, a project he said uncovered incredible talent behind bars that would give those serving time a purpose just as he had found his purpose. He is also the spokesperson for the anti-drug campaign run by the Ministry of National Security’s National Drug Secretariat.

Mr Chappelle and his soulmate and life partner, Kim, were married by Rev Bryn MacPhail, pastor of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Kirk.

But now, Mr Chappelle’s time to fulfil his purpose is being cut short. He has been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and while he is fighting for his life, his medical bills are mounting and his wife is struggling to keep the care going.

Once again, McDonald’s is stepping up. Throughout December, hostesses will wander through the restaurants literally offering customers a “hand”, a paper representation of the help they are providing to meet the growing medical expenses. Customers can donate any amount and McDonald’s will match whatever is raised by December 31. No purchase is required.

“To know Andre is to know that there is a God,” said Mrs Bethel. “He has restored the faith of so many. It is a tragedy that he is the one suffering now, but his life has had meaning and purpose and in the end that is all any of us wants. I just hope that thousands will visit McDonald’s to show their gratitude by “Giving a Hand” to this phenomenally, extraordinary man who has positively impacted the lives of thousands in our country.”