Frank Brady

I retired after thirty-five years at General Motors as liaison with the autoworkers union. I embraced my retirement with open arms and the financial wherewithal to relax for a while. As with most retirees, I was busy with all those projects that were never addressed while working. Well, that lasted only about a year when my wife, Cindy, “encouraged” me (phrased politely) to get out of the house a little more!

We had attended mass occasionally at a Jesuit church in downtown Detroit, Michigan – Ss. Peter and Paul’s. One Sunday, I read in the church bulletin of a need for volunteers at their warming center for the homeless. About 80 men and women come in off the streets for a few hours for donuts, a hot meal, laundry, showers, shaves, legal assistance, foot care, a movie, and, most importantly for most, conversation.

They are our guests and I have become closer to some than others – one in particular is a serious heroin addict and alcoholic, but with a huge heart. He sleeps outside all year round, even in Detroit’s bitter cold. Each time I see him, I know in a sense I am also seeing the face of God. It is then that I grasp the true meaning of success. It is not in the materials things of life. It is in the kinship we feel with each other. It is in the true acceptance of each other as we are and where we are.

I have been working as a volunteer two days a week for four years. My experience brings back memories of my years in school with the Jesuits. As I greet my friends at the center, I recall the Jesuit motto: “Men for others.”

I get more satisfaction out of this than in my corporate career. A lot of good things happened when I worked for GM, changes in people’s lives, especially employees on the assembly line. But you don’t see the direct satisfaction as I do now. You get smiles, thank you’s, great to see you’s. I hate to think that’s why I’m doing it. As odd as it may seem, I really look forward to seeing some of these guys.

Am I having an impact? Truly, after a while you don’t look for impact, you just do it, you just be there for them. If we had the resources, we could provide counseling, intervention, health care, but we don’t have that, so you’re just there with your friend. As an older volunteer, I have a long history of life’s fluctuations. It is easy to expose my vulnerabilities and to accept theirs. They listen. I listen. We listen. Kinship!

(Read more about Frank Brady and his family’s volunteer commitment in the Detroit News.)