Dancing Again
Buddy Chapman has spent his career in service and worked as the Director of Police in Memphis from 1973-1986, and he now serves as the Executive Director of Crimestoppers of Memphis. He also understands pain. For years, Buddy lived with a growing disability in both his knees. “I had gotten so that I couldn’t walk without a cane,” he says. “I was in pain 24/7/365. It was always there.” However, Buddy didn’t want to seek surgery, because he was not confident that currently available surgical techniques could help him. That changed when he met an old friend. “She was just as bow-legged as I was,” Chapman recalls. “But by God, she was walking after a recent surgery. She said, ‘I had my knees done, and it was miraculous. They had a new way of doing it now.’” Taking advantage of this new technology made possible by medical research, Chapman decided to have the surgery. Yes, he acknowledges, the surgery and rehabilitation were tough, but “It’s as if someone had touched my life with a magic wand.” And now he’s back to doing the things he loves to do, dancing with his wife, working at his house, and making Memphis a better place.