In nearly a century of life, Pablo Davis has built a career as a painter, sculptor and activist. He worked with Diego Rivera on the “Detroit Industry” mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts, created an assisted living center for seniors in Southwest Detroit, and currently has a piece “Descent From the Cross” on display at the Scarab Club in Detroit’s Cultural Center.
He’s a remarkable person, and while his sight has faded and his hands have grown shaky, his artistic spirit has never dimmed.
He began coming to the North Oakland Y with his caregiver, Jean Wharton, some years ago, working out on the machines three times a week. “I’m a believer in activity, in ‘get up and do it’,” he says. As his sight began to fail, he developed vertigo, and his arthritis has progressed he struggled to continue his workouts, and that’s where Vernell Herd stepped in.
Vernell is a personal trainer at the Y and noticed the Pablo needed some help with his exercise. He asked to help him, and designed a workout Pablo could do in his wheelchair. He’s now walking the length of the upstairs hall at the Y with assistance.
The two men have become good friends in the time they have been working together. “I am in a place where I am able to give back,” Vernell says. “I’m being taught some history…while I am teaching him, he is teaching me.” He also considers his work with Pablo just another example of Y values. “I just invoke the Golden Rule ,” he says. “I look at it as how I would want to be treated when I get older.”
Vernell is just one Pablo’s many friends at the Y…he has a community of older men he visits with frequently, drinking coffee and discussing current events.
Jean says that Vernell lifts Pablo’s spirits as well as helping him strengthen physically. And she appreciates the Y’s affordability, so that they both can enjoy it. “This facility has been an emotional and physical Godsend” she says.