Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412270103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The people who see McLain evidently come away with more than money. When asked about their experiences with RAM, many of the agency's clients seem as grateful for his kindness and understanding as they are for the financial help.
McLain won't reveal his age, but his skin is smooth and unlined, and his hair shows no trace of gray. Originally from Bluefield, W.Va., he has a degree in psychology but was unable to find work in his field in his hometown.
In the mid-1980s he moved to Roanoke, where he often worked at three or four minimum-wage jobs at a time before coming to RAM as a GED tutor in 1989. Most of McLain's empathy for RAM's clients comes from his own struggles against poverty, he said.
What most people don't know, however, is that behind the cheerful smile and kind words, McLain has been fighting a battle with pain "so bad that on a good day, you wish for death," he said.
McLain has avascular necrosis, a disease that has caused the bone in his upper legs to die. The subsequent deterioration causes the pain. Sleeping, walking and the simplest personal chores have been nearly impossible for him, and yet he showed up for work every day, no matter how bad he felt.
Since a bone graft operation on his right leg in mid-November, the pain has been reduced to a bearable level, McLain said. It will be six months before his doctors will know whether the graft has taken and new bone growth has begun. McLain hopes to return to work in January, but idleness has been hard on him.
He has no hobbies and no close family members nearby. His work is everything to him.
"It is a job that I truly love," he said. "I never could have this anywhere else." He enjoys helping people, he said, and when they come in for financial help, he also shows them how to better manage their money.
His illness has given him plenty of time to worry about his own financial situation. He has medical insurance, but he is reponsible for 20 percent of the bill for the operation, which will run into the tens of thousands of dollars. The surgeon agreed to waive that part of his fee and just take the insurance payment, but there are still bills from the hospital, for the walker he must use, and for the half-dozen medications he takes.
He is careful about budgeting his money, but McLain's job at RAM pays only a little above minium wage, and his finances have been stretched to the limit. To help him out and to keep him occupied while he recuperates, RAM has lent him a computer and financial-planning software. RAM's employees and volunteers have been providing emotional support by visiting and sending cards.
"It is truly a blessing to have friends and well-wishers," he said.
To ensure that he still has an income, RAM is paying him his regular salary in exchange for his personal days and vacation time. It will take years to make up that much time, McLain and RAM's director Julie Hollingsworth said, but McLain said he doesn't like taking vacations anyway.
Said Hollingsworth, laughing: "Dannie owes his life and his vacations to us forever."
Checks should be made payable to Good Neighbors Fund and mailed to Roanoke Times & World-News. P.0. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not amounts of donations - of contributing businesses, individuals or organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed in the newspaper. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.
Gifts cannot be earmarked for any particular individual or family. Gifts are tax-deductible.
by CNB