David CookFriday morning, someone else came forward with another Bill Cosby story.
"I think he's an incredibly selfless, big-hearted person," said local attorney Mike Mallen.
In 1999, Cosby came to town for two shows at Memorial Auditorium. Mallen and his wife took their daughter, who was 10 at the time.
It was a matinee performance. They sat on the front row.
Halfway through the show, Cosby spotted the girl. It was hard not to.
Years of gastrointestinal illness had made her frail. Weak. Tiny Tim-ish. Surgery was scheduled soon. The Cosby performance was the laugh before the storm.
So Cosby saw her -- you know, really saw her -- and stopped the show.
He got up and walked to the edge of the stage, looked right at her ... and smiled.
Whatcha doing down there, Cosby asked.
"Waiting to get your autograph," the little girl answered.
So Cosby invited her up on stage, right then, right there, in front of everybody.
"He talked to her from that big heart of his, and made her feel like she was the most important person anywhere while 2,500 audience members watched," Mallen remembers.
Mallen's heart boomed with joy and gratitude. To this day, he tears up thinking about it: this bigger-than-life celebrity, stooping low enough to be gentle to his sick daughter.
Later, Mallen got a message to Cosby's manager: Please thank him from the bottom of our heart.
The manager sent a message back: Mr. Cosby would like to see you all later tonight.
The Mallens returned for the evening show. Cosby called her up on stage again. Afterward, Cosby gave the Mallens the name and number of a doctor he knew in Texas. A specialist. One of the best.
Cosby then got them an appointment.
While they were in Texas, Cosby or his wife called every day to check in.
When the Mallens went to pay their hospital bill, the Cosbys had already paid it.
"Bill Cosby is a special person," Mallen said. "A kind and gentle soul. A guardian angel of children."
That's the Bill Cosby he knows.
For years, that's the Bill Cosby the rest of us have known too.
But now?
Mallen refuses to go there.
"What is happening to him nationally is not fair," he said. "He is getting dragged through this media blender with questionable allegations. It is an electronic execution of this man's character."
For much of Friday, I thought about Mallen's story, trying to square it with the growing number of American women who claim Cosby is, or was, a serial rapist.
Normally, I'd write some sentences here about rape culture. Or the media. Or race, even.
But not this time.
This time, I'm going to let Mallen's story stand alone. I'm not going to challenge it, or poke at it, or use it to editorialize about Cosby.
Because Mallen's story was not really about Bill Cosby.
He thinks it is. You may, too.
But it's not.
Don't you see what it's about? Look close. Closer.
It's about Mallen's daughter.
She matters just as much in this story as Cosby does.
After her trip to Texas, she got well. Healthy as a horse. Went back to school, then college, and then, inspired by what happened that night with Cosby, decided on a career.
"She is now a pediatric nurse practitioner," Mallen said. "She's paying it forward."
That's the focus of the story.
Not Cosby.
Because Cosby's just a man. Nothing more, nothing less.
He's funny. And certainly famous. But he's just a man, capable of both tremendous wrongdoing and unforgettable kindness.
Just like the rest of us.
The mistake we continue to make in this country is overcooking our celebrities; we leave them in the oven for far too long, turning them from regular people into heroes and demigods.
(We care more about the allegations against Cosby than the local woman attacked while running near Finley Stadium and the two men found guilty last week of raping her.)
Redirecting the spotlight from Cosby to Mallen's daughter is an act of grounding our attention. It normalizes the human condition, reminding us that we're all just mere mortals.
It puts the spotlight where it should have been all along.
On ordinary people.
On sick kids who get well.
On acts of compassion, which can never be undone.
And on nurses, who are always more important than celebrities.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCookTFP.