Ken Taylor was dead. Or close enough to dead. Overdosed, on a hospital gurney, motionless, waiting for a doctor to make it official.
“I had an accidental overdose of fentanyl and cocaine; I literally died,” said Taylor, 60. “All of a sudden, my breath came back. I gasped.”
“Welcome back, Mr. Taylor,” a doctor said. “You’re one lucky man.”
People can make their own luck, and Taylor decided to get busy.
“That was a wakening moment for me,” said Taylor, supervisor at Mac’s Deli, the cleanest hot dog stand in the city of Chicago, opened last November and run by recovering drug addicts and alcoholics at Haymarket Center in West Loop.
Every addict has a story they tell to keep themselves honest, and Taylor shared his as the half-dozen workers under him prepped Mac’s Deli for the lunch crowd, pre-grilling burgers and wiping down immaculate surfaces.
On June 8. Taylor got out of prison after more than a decade behind bars for robbery. A drug habit is expensive.
“I’ve been in and out of prison for the better part of 30 years — my whole adult life,” said Taylor. “I used to live and lived to use.”
On June 10 he went back to his old stomping grounds. Waiting for him there was his old friend cocaine, laced with the fentanyl that is now mixed into everything.
“That was not my intent to go use,” he said. “I went down there just to be social. Next thing I know, I was ready to be pronounced in the hospital.”
He ended up at South Suburban Rehabilitation Center, which recommended Haymarket, the city’s largest provider of addiction and mental health services, treating 12,000 Chicagoans a year — 95% earning less than $10,000 a year. It’s a busy place.
“When I came down to Haymarket they didn’t have a bed open,” said Taylor. “It was on a Saturday, and he told me, ‘Come back Monday morning and I’ll get you in.'”
Do you see the flaw in that plan? Taylor did.
“I told that guy, if you let me leave here I will not make it back here Monday morning,” said Taylor. “He saw that I was serious. He said, ‘Let me see what we can find.'”
“That guy” was Jose Castro, manager of central intake at Haymarket.
“When a person is in need of help, we want to help them right there on the spot,” said Castro. “We do everything in our power to get that person treatment. There may not be another chance. That person might never come back. That’s the problem with this disease.”
Castro spent a couple of hours making calls and shuffling patients.
“Sometimes we have to get real fancy,” he said. “It becomes like a game of chess. I would have to move one person from one program to another program in order to make one bed.”
That was August. Taylor graduated in December, moved into his own apartment and got this job.
Mac’s Deli employees get experience at Haymarket’s commercial kitchen, serving 900 meals a day. Working at Mac’s Deli is the next step toward jobs at restaurants around the city. So far it’s working well, and has been embraced by the neighborhood. A basic Vienna Beef hot dog is $3.99.
“My price point is a lot cheaper,” said Dr. Dan Lustig, president and CEO of Haymarket. “You can’t get a sandwich in the West Loop for under $18.”
Mac’s opens at 11 a.m. The first customer of the day was a neighborhood resident — a computer consultant, naturally — looking for an early lunch. But the second was Dena Dye, who had dropped off clothing and money for cigarettes to a resident.
“Thank God for this place,” she said, ordering a corned beef with Swiss cheese on toasted rye bread. “I want to support it.”
Ken Taylor knows that six months sobriety is both a great start and only a beginning. He also knows what’s at stake.
“I have a daughter, a son and three grandchildren whom I love dearly,” he said,. “They’re so happy to see that their dad and their granddad is doing well. I have an amazing significant other who supported me through all the madness and is still on my side.”
He is hopeful.
“Recovery is possible, if you work the program,” he said. “I’m continuing in my recovery, making my meetings. If you stay connected, which is why I love the fact that I got this job. I deal with recovery every day. I see the revolving door, every day. It’s a constant reminder I’m doing the right thing, and it works. My goal is ultimately to open up my own business, maybe something similar to Mac’s Deli.”
