If you lived in Chicago in the 1980s, you knew who Kevin Matthews was. He dominated the coveted drive time morning radio environment in the third most important media market in the U.S., doing one of those “zany” borderline tasteful shows. He was a guy who not only was perennially in search of the next alcohol and drug-fueled good time, but he also found it.
His lifestyle of excess and ribaldry was almost cliché. It sounds so familiar that one wonders why we should even care about just another sad fall. It was the 1980s — the entire city of Chicago seemed to be riding the same wave of success with the Bulls, the Bears, and Oprah.
But you will care about Kevin Matthews after watching “Broken Mary,” the documentary about his rapid rise, eventual crash, and miraculous comeback.
When the radio business changed, along with Matthews’ audience demographics, he lost everything. After decades on the radio, all he had to show for himself was an empty bank account, two weeks’ severance pay, and a diagnosis that at first leaned toward an incurable brain tumor but settled on a less fatal, but unwelcomed nonetheless, diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
Matthews is our personal tour guide in “Broken Mary.” He recounts a brutal childhood with an abusive father, resulting in constant confrontation with authority and personal chaos. He is not the first person who has spun trauma into comedy gold. Matthews’ talents took him from madcap college radio guy to big-time radio at light speed.
There have been many documentaries in the rise-and-fall category, but not many where the co-star is the Blessed Mother. When she does make her “appearance” in the film, the tenor of the story — and Matthews’ life — are forever altered.
Broke, out of work, and suffering the beginning effects of MS, a random drive in his car turned into something else when a voice told him to go to the cemetery. Almost immediately after hearing that voice, he saw a cemetery. He drove in, saw a large crucifix, and approached it. With little premeditation, he put his hand that was numb and damaged from MS on the feet of Jesus.
He felt water dripping onto him on a sunny day, along with feeling that had returned to that hand. He rushed, or rushed as fast as someone with MS can, back home to tell his wife.
Instead of this miracle causing him to act like the penitent prodigal son, Matthews acted more like one of the nine lepers who went about their business after their encounter with Jesus. It was not obvious to him then, but Mary had more work to do.
She chose what looked like a random errand where Matthews visited a florist to buy flowers for his wife. Outside, next to a dumpster, he saw a statue of the Blessed Mother. It was broken in two. Matthews had been raised Catholic-adjacent, but at the time of this encounter with the Blessed Mother, he did not even know how to pray a rosary.
He heard a voice again and knew he had to have that statue. The shopkeeper relented to give him the statue only after Matthews promised to give money to nearby nuns, even though he had no idea if there were any. When he took the statue to a repair shop, he requested only that the two pieces be made one, and all other brokenness and imperfections were to remain as he found her. And the journey of “Our Lady of the Broken” began.
Matthews went to confession for the first time in decades. Thanks to the internet, he learned how to pray the rosary. A priest friend reminded him about his promise to help nuns and let him know there actually were some near that flower shop who could use a little assistance. That same priest told him he should tell his story about the statue, so he strapped the statue onto a small dolly and began pulling her around the greater Chicago area, giving talks about his conversion and growing dedication to “Our Lady of the Broken.”
Matthews’ story arc, especially as it relates to his rise to fame, sounds like a broken record we have heard before. But the life-changing power of the intercession of the Blessed Mother and the message of love and forgiveness from her son is always something new and improved — and so is Kevin Matthews.
To learn more about Kevin Matthews’ speaking schedule, visit speaker.brokenmary.com. For home viewing, find the film on your platform of choice at BrokenMaryFilm.com.
