Finally, after five months of surgery and rehabilitation in Denver, Prudence Mabhena can sit up straight in her wheelchair. And that's enough for the singer to belt out an amazing "Amazing Grace."
But when Mabhena, 24, returns home to Zimbabwe this summer, she will carry with her more than gratitude for the Children's Hospital surgical team. Mabhena, the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary called "Music by Prudence," leaves with a lasting attachment to Denver, borne out of the help of so many people who offered time and money for the sake of her health and happiness.
"It is so surprising to find someone who gives his or her love to a stranger who lives 20,000 miles away, on the other side of the world," said Mabhena, in the hotel suite in south Denver where she has lived, without charge, since she arrived. "I didn't believe I would get to a place where people have such full love and care."
Mabhena, who was crippled by a congenital disorder at birth, might have died without surgery. But a series of chance encounters — fostered by her growing popularity as a singer — led her to Denver, where Children's Hospital staffers donated their pricey time for her benefit. Where a restaurateur dedicated a balance of his life to her well-being. Where a hotel owner gave her a nice place to stay.
Where on Wednesday a benefit will be held in her honor, to raise money for the costly electric wheelchair she never had in Zimbabwe. Since the range of motion in her arms is minuscule, she has always depended upon people pushing her to get around.
Mabhena's Denver time has been uplifting, and sometimes even fun. But also rough, with difficult and painful surgeries.
She is accustomed to struggle.
Mabhena was born with arthrogryposis, a disorder that twisted her limbs and denied her the ability to walk. When she was young, her disfigured legs were amputated beneath the knees.
The condition convinced some in Zimbabwe
that she was a witch, or possessed by the devil. It also caused her parents to divorce when she was an infant. Her mother and father, she said, could not deal with the stress that her birth introduced to their lives.
Early on, as she split time between parents' and grandparents' houses, she began singing. She remembers sitting outside her grandmother's house and playing in the dirt, pretending she was cooking and imitating her grandmother's singing voice. Then she sang in church. People told her she was good.
She hid her voice in school, though, until one day when she was 12 and thought she was alone in a corridor. A teacher heard her.
"Are you the one who was singing?" the teacher asked. Mabhena said she feared answering honestly, because students were supposed to be quiet in the hallways. "Something told me I was going to be in trouble. But something also told me to say yes."
Getting caught led her straight to the school choir, which engendered all of the rest: assembling a band, getting noticed, attracting a filmmaker, performing around the world, traveling to Hollywood to take part in the Oscar ceremonies. A trip to the Telluride Film Festival introduced her to a doctor who understood right away that she needed surgery, or she might not survive. He had friends at Children's Hospital. He asked if the hospital could help.
"We feel that we have a responsibility to children throughout the world, where it is a life-threatening condition and our expertise can make a difference," said Dr. Stephen Berman, a Children's Hospital pediatrician. "If she had been living in the United States, she would have had the surgeries much earlier that would have enabled her back to be straighter."
Dr. Mark Erickson, a top spine surgeon, performed the procedure earlier this year.
"Her way to interact with the world is to sit, because she can't walk. She can move her shoulders a bit. Not her elbows. Her hips don't move at all," Erickson said. "Our goal was to get her positioned so her pelvis is level, so her spine comes up as straight as possible. So she can be more up, rather than leaning over to the side all day long."
The scoliosis in her spine was at 100 degrees.
"Normally, it's zero," Erickson said. "Curves that big progress. What we see in kids that are untreated is that the curves get to a point where they have trouble sitting because it hurts too much. So they spend more time lying down. Now all Prudence has is sitting and lying down. Take away one, and that's a big deal."
The first surgery, on her spine, took five hours. Erickson placed rods and screws in her back to keep her spine straight. The hip operation, a few weeks later, took three hours. In that procedure, Erickson made it easier for Mabhena to sit on her hips. At some point earlier in her life, her hips had become dislocated.
An enduring mark
Mabhena's Colorado sojourn is one she'll never forget, she says. But to those who have met her, even briefly, the feeling is mutual.
"There's just something about her that is a glow, that after you spend time with her, kind of emanates, that touches you," Berman said. "She is a quite remarkable young woman. Everyone at Children's who has come into contact with her has left with something of Prudence's love of life."
Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality in Denver, donated the suite in his hotel to Prudence because, among other things, he feels passionate about helping African kids in need.
"It's amazing that someone with her physical challenges would be so positive about life," he said. "And it's a lesson for all of us. We take all sorts of things for granted. We are spoiled."
Erickson said Mabhena had such an impact on his two sons that they wrote school reports about her.
"The best way I can describe Prudence is: How many people do you know who are one-namers?" he said. "She is a one-namer," like Prince or Madonna.
One Denverite in particular has been touched: Noel Cunningham, the Irishman who opened Strings restaurant in the late 1980s.
Ask Mabhena about Cunningham, and she laughs.
"He came with ideas," she said. "So many ideas. They were all great. Like making sure I enjoyed myself before the surgery. I had a limo ride. A helicopter ride. I go to Strings a lot."
And there, Cunningham flutters around her, urging her to eat more, cracking jokes, toiling to coax from Mabhena her disarming, spectacular, infectious smile, a grin so broad and bright it startles.
"When Prudence came here, I remember, after a 30-hour journey, these guys greeted me with a smile. If it was me getting off the plane, I'd be whining and grumpy," he said. "So I've done one of my Noel ego things. I said, 'By the time you leave here, you won't want to leave.' "
Among other things, Cunningham helped arrange for Metro Taxi to drive Prudence around — free of charge. In addition, Centura Home Health Care donated the services of a physical therapist nearly every day since her surgeries.
Despite all of his efforts, Cunningham hasn't quite succeeded; Mabhena cannot wait to return to her country, to the school for disabled kids where she lives and teaches music and art, to the people who, she says, have "been through a lot, but don't stop smiling."
Embracing the struggle
While Mabhena was growing up, the smiles came, but there were a lot of tears too. As she grew older, she felt jealousy toward cousins and others who merged from school into careers. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer, "but I don't envy lawyers," she said. All of her dreams — like becoming a nurse — fizzled after she scrutinized them. She couldn't walk. She had little movement in general throughout her body. How could she work? How would she survive?
Now, as she writes her own music and spends time in recording studios and on stages, the question is: How much more can she thrive?
Despite all she has endured, Mabhena worries that life might become too easy. She struggles to remain humble.
"So many times when I went through pain, I thought it was God's way to tell me not to complain," she said. "I would meet people with more problems than me, and still I could complain and complain and complain."
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 ordjbrown@denverpost.com
Meet Prudence
What:Screening of the film "Music by Prudence," followed by the star of the film, Prudence Mabhena, singing, talking about her life and answering questions.
When:7 p.m. Wednesday
Where:Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, 2510 E. Colfax Ave. in the Lowenstein CulturePlex.
But when Mabhena, 24, returns home to Zimbabwe this summer, she will carry with her more than gratitude for the Children's Hospital surgical team. Mabhena, the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary called "Music by Prudence," leaves with a lasting attachment to Denver, borne out of the help of so many people who offered time and money for the sake of her health and happiness.
"It is so surprising to find someone who gives his or her love to a stranger who lives 20,000 miles away, on the other side of the world," said Mabhena, in the hotel suite in south Denver where she has lived, without charge, since she arrived. "I didn't believe I would get to a place where people have such full love and care."
Mabhena, who was crippled by a congenital disorder at birth, might have died without surgery. But a series of chance encounters — fostered by her growing popularity as a singer — led her to Denver, where Children's Hospital staffers donated their pricey time for her benefit. Where a restaurateur dedicated a balance of his life to her well-being. Where a hotel owner gave her a nice place to stay.
Where on Wednesday a benefit will be held in her honor, to raise money for the costly electric wheelchair she never had in Zimbabwe. Since the range of motion in her arms is minuscule, she has always depended upon people pushing her to get around.
Mabhena's Denver time has been uplifting, and sometimes even fun. But also rough, with difficult and painful surgeries.
She is accustomed to struggle.
Mabhena was born with arthrogryposis, a disorder that twisted her limbs and denied her the ability to walk. When she was young, her disfigured legs were amputated beneath the knees.
The condition convinced some in Zimbabwe
that she was a witch, or possessed by the devil. It also caused her parents to divorce when she was an infant. Her mother and father, she said, could not deal with the stress that her birth introduced to their lives.
Early on, as she split time between parents' and grandparents' houses, she began singing. She remembers sitting outside her grandmother's house and playing in the dirt, pretending she was cooking and imitating her grandmother's singing voice. Then she sang in church. People told her she was good.
She hid her voice in school, though, until one day when she was 12 and thought she was alone in a corridor. A teacher heard her.
"Are you the one who was singing?" the teacher asked. Mabhena said she feared answering honestly, because students were supposed to be quiet in the hallways. "Something told me I was going to be in trouble. But something also told me to say yes."
Getting caught led her straight to the school choir, which engendered all of the rest: assembling a band, getting noticed, attracting a filmmaker, performing around the world, traveling to Hollywood to take part in the Oscar ceremonies. A trip to the Telluride Film Festival introduced her to a doctor who understood right away that she needed surgery, or she might not survive. He had friends at Children's Hospital. He asked if the hospital could help.
"We feel that we have a responsibility to children throughout the world, where it is a life-threatening condition and our expertise can make a difference," said Dr. Stephen Berman, a Children's Hospital pediatrician. "If she had been living in the United States, she would have had the surgeries much earlier that would have enabled her back to be straighter."
Dr. Mark Erickson, a top spine surgeon, performed the procedure earlier this year.
The scoliosis in her spine was at 100 degrees.
"Normally, it's zero," Erickson said. "Curves that big progress. What we see in kids that are untreated is that the curves get to a point where they have trouble sitting because it hurts too much. So they spend more time lying down. Now all Prudence has is sitting and lying down. Take away one, and that's a big deal."
The first surgery, on her spine, took five hours. Erickson placed rods and screws in her back to keep her spine straight. The hip operation, a few weeks later, took three hours. In that procedure, Erickson made it easier for Mabhena to sit on her hips. At some point earlier in her life, her hips had become dislocated.
An enduring mark
Mabhena's Colorado sojourn is one she'll never forget, she says. But to those who have met her, even briefly, the feeling is mutual.
"There's just something about her that is a glow, that after you spend time with her, kind of emanates, that touches you," Berman said. "She is a quite remarkable young woman. Everyone at Children's who has come into contact with her has left with something of Prudence's love of life."
Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality in Denver, donated the suite in his hotel to Prudence because, among other things, he feels passionate about helping African kids in need.
"It's amazing that someone with her physical challenges would be so positive about life," he said. "And it's a lesson for all of us. We take all sorts of things for granted. We are spoiled."
Erickson said Mabhena had such an impact on his two sons that they wrote school reports about her.
"The best way I can describe Prudence is: How many people do you know who are one-namers?" he said. "She is a one-namer," like Prince or Madonna.
One Denverite in particular has been touched: Noel Cunningham, the Irishman who opened Strings restaurant in the late 1980s.
Ask Mabhena about Cunningham, and she laughs.
"He came with ideas," she said. "So many ideas. They were all great. Like making sure I enjoyed myself before the surgery. I had a limo ride. A helicopter ride. I go to Strings a lot."
And there, Cunningham flutters around her, urging her to eat more, cracking jokes, toiling to coax from Mabhena her disarming, spectacular, infectious smile, a grin so broad and bright it startles.
"When Prudence came here, I remember, after a 30-hour journey, these guys greeted me with a smile. If it was me getting off the plane, I'd be whining and grumpy," he said. "So I've done one of my Noel ego things. I said, 'By the time you leave here, you won't want to leave.' "
Among other things, Cunningham helped arrange for Metro Taxi to drive Prudence around — free of charge. In addition, Centura Home Health Care donated the services of a physical therapist nearly every day since her surgeries.
Despite all of his efforts, Cunningham hasn't quite succeeded; Mabhena cannot wait to return to her country, to the school for disabled kids where she lives and teaches music and art, to the people who, she says, have "been through a lot, but don't stop smiling."
Embracing the struggle
While Mabhena was growing up, the smiles came, but there were a lot of tears too. As she grew older, she felt jealousy toward cousins and others who merged from school into careers. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer, "but I don't envy lawyers," she said. All of her dreams — like becoming a nurse — fizzled after she scrutinized them. She couldn't walk. She had little movement in general throughout her body. How could she work? How would she survive?
Now, as she writes her own music and spends time in recording studios and on stages, the question is: How much more can she thrive?
Despite all she has endured, Mabhena worries that life might become too easy. She struggles to remain humble.
"So many times when I went through pain, I thought it was God's way to tell me not to complain," she said. "I would meet people with more problems than me, and still I could complain and complain and complain."
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 ordjbrown@denverpost.com
Meet Prudence
What:Screening of the film "Music by Prudence," followed by the star of the film, Prudence Mabhena, singing, talking about her life and answering questions.
When:7 p.m. Wednesday
Where:Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, 2510 E. Colfax Ave. in the Lowenstein CulturePlex.
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