It’s 9 a.m. on a rainy Saturday in July. Despite having to be at work soon, 18-year-old Kendall Roach has made it a priority to stop by the build site for Sangamon County Habitat for Humanity’s House No. 75.
The only teenager on site, Kendall works on the siding of the house as other volunteers wait for their assignments.
“He’s already working,” comments an adult volunteer. “Seems like he knows his job.”
Kendall has been a regular volunteer for House 75 since June. Through his help building the home for Patty Redpath and her seven adopted children, he has found his calling: construction.
His helpfulness and enthusiasm on the site are apparent. Hardly anyone can tell that Kendall has to use his left leg to drive a car, or to do a back flip off the diving board — and that he must get a new prosthetic leg every two years.
Kendall’s right leg was amputated when he was 9, after he saved his best friend’s younger brother from a freight train on the railroad tracks near Edmond Street.
“We were riding bikes. I wanted to get a drink and I heard the train tracks rustling,” Kendall said. “I seen him by the tracks, and I got on my bike. I rode over there. And I went up there and I dragged him back.”
Though he rescued the boy, Kendall slipped on a rock and fell under the train. His foot was cut straight off. A neighbor carried Kendall, who initially tried to hop home, to a nearby house to await help.
The bone above his right ankle was crushed, and, because of gangrene, Kendall’s leg was amputated below his knee. He spent a week in the hospital recovering. Eventually, he was fitted with a prosthetic.
Despite still needing physical therapy, Kendall immediately tried to jump into normal activities and even rode a bike his first day home from the hospital.
His biggest challenge to overcome throughout the following years was school, he said.
“A lot of people make fun of you,” he said. “They don’t know why (my leg) is like it is.”
Knowing he had a problem with anger management, Kendall learned not to let mean comments affect him. He told himself to “always look at things positively” and not to let anything get him down. He said the past few years haven’t been so hard since he adopted that philosophy.
“He’s turned himself around and is trying to be responsible,” said Marilyn Choudry, a friend of Patty Redpath and the mother of Kendall’s girlfriend, Anna, 20.
Kendall has proven that he can do anything, including physical work.
“He doesn’t let things stop him,” Choudry said. “He does very physical work. He loves it.”
Kendall got involved with the Habitat house through Choudry. What he likes about Habitat for Humanity is “being around people and helping somebody else out,” he said, “because I know when I got hit by a train, a lot of people helped me.”
Everyone on the site knows Kendall as a very helpful volunteer who is a big fan of “roofing.”
“He’s skilled and enthusiastic as everyone. His productivity is not hampered,” said Joe Clennon, the construction coordinator for House 75 who has been involved with Habitat for Humanity for more than 10 years.
“He has a great spirit … And that (character) is not diminished as the result of his injury.”
Patty Redpath, the homeowner, describes Kendall as hardworking, willing to learn and determined to make a better life for himself.
“It’s a great testimony to what somebody can do. He overcame his own challenges by helping somebody else,” Redpath said. “I have not seen anything he’s not willing to try or put his mind on it.
“One day my mom came to visit, and she said he shouldn’t be on the roof, but I said, ‘He’s fine. He’s fine.’ ”
Kendall said his favorite part of construction is roofing; most days, he gets up on the Redpath roof before anyone can stop him.
“I like it. You get a good tan, and it’s a big exercise,” he said.
The five-bedroom house is scheduled to be finished by the end of September. Since getting a full-time job with Goodwill Industries in late June, Kendall usually helps build three days a week.
He said he has enjoyed witnessing the building process.
“When I first got there, they had the foundation laid,” he said. “Then I seen the floor go down and then the walls … I remember when it was just concrete brick there, and now it’s a standing house.”
Kendall hopes to follow his passion toward a goal. Despite family problems complicating his education in the past, he plans to attend Lawrence Education Center to get his GED.
It will be his third attempt since leaving Lanphier High School his sophomore year, but he said he is ready to do what it takes this time around, and he has the support he needs to achieve it. Later, he plans to take courses at Lincoln Land Community College to begin working toward a career in construction.
For the past nine years, Kendall has kept in touch with the boy her rescued, James Sisti, now in his early teens, whom Kendall brags is on to becoming a “big-time” artist. Though his own teen years were challenging, Kendall said he’s happy with his life.
“I’m glad I’m still here,” he said. “They said if I would have stayed there (at the injury site) a minute and a half later, I would have died.”
He said he would have missed a lot, especially meeting his 2-year-old nephew, Purnell, and Anna. Kendall and Anna are saving up for their own place and are expecting a baby in January.
Shriners Hospital for Children in St. Louis has been helping Kendall with the upkeep of his leg, which is made of titanium and fiberglass, since his childhood. Now that he’s 18, however, his age no longer allows him to go to the hospital, which doesn’t charge its patients.
“They said they’d make me one more leg and then I’ve got to find somewhere else to go of my choice,” he said. The expense will become his responsibility.
Kendall still thinks back to the day he was injured and how he feared he’d never walk again. The most difficult part, he said, was taking his first step in recovery; he was too scared that the prosthetic leg would not hold.
“But when I learned how,” he said, “I never stopped.”
Natthida Wiwatwicha is an exchange student from Bangkok, Thailand. Voice editor Kelsea Gurski contributed to this article.
