Courage Personified

Conrad Buchman proved himself a hero six months ago. When a suicidal woman, distraught over her husband’s death, jumped from a Sherman Oaks Galleria parking garage, Buchman tried to catch her. She died. He broke his neck.

The 26-year-old former mall security guard left the hospital last week after months of operations and rehabilitation to face life as a quadriplegic. If anyone could be expected to say life is unfair, surely it’s him. But amazingly, he smiled and cracked jokes. More amazing still, he expressed no regrets over his instinctive action that day to try to help a person in need.

“I wasn’t expecting to come across this difficulty,” he said, “but I don’t regret it at all.”

This difficulty. How his use of that word makes our everyday problems seem petty, not to mention our everyday attitudes.

Buchman doesn’t downplay his difficulty, which makes his attitude all the more amazing. Even with the strong support of his family and his faith, he doesn’t deny how hard it is to adjust to his changed life. So much has been taken away. That his spirit remains intact is an act of will as heroic as any grand gesture. It is an act of heroism he will practice every day. We wish him strength. Courage, he has in spades.