In a lecture given at the New York Public Library, novelist Frederick Buechner noted: "A saint is a life-giver. A saint is a human being with the same hang-ups and dark secrets and abysses as the rest of us. But if a saint touches your life, you come alive in a new way."
In Regarding Henry, Bradley is a saint. He is a physical therapist who helps usher Henry back into an active life after he is paralyzed and loses his memory after suffering brain damage from a gunshot wound. But when this once career-obsessed lawyer tries to assume his old routine, he has trouble coping. He tells his friend, "I thought I could go back to my life. But I don't like who I was back then."
Bradley replies with a story from his life. He was a star college football player looking forward to a professional career until he was tackled during a game and felt his knees pop. He knew his career was over:
"It was a test. I had to find a life. The therapist who helped me walk again — he was so cool. I thought that's what I want to do. When I told some of my buddies, they laughed right in my face . . .
"Check it out, you're walkin', you're talkin'. I had something to do with that. If it weren't for my knees I never would have met you. So I don't mind having bad knees.
"Let me tell you something, Hank. Don't listen to nobody trying to tell you who you are. It might take a while but you'll figure yourself out."
Thanks to Bradley, the life-giver, Henry eventually does figure out who he wants to be and what he must do. Thanks to the moral mentorship of this physical therapist, Henry is able to come alive in a new way or, in biblical terms, to be born again.
