Bill C, Newspaperman
Sobriety date: July 9, 1997I was 63 and my life was pretty well over. There were few friends left, if any, and I was sure I would never see 65. I didn't really care if I woke up dead tomorrow.
It was semi-retirement of a sort and I was taking a break from my desktop publishing business, built up during two years on the wagon, again, after booze had helped ease me out of my last job. Alcohol had really taken over this time and I was in no hurry to get back to work. It was drink and sleep and hide.
I landed in Hanley after deciding I didn't want to be found dead from drink after all. I mean, what would people think! This was not a rational decision and no research was done.
So it was a shock up to learn ‑- several days after a very blurry check-in ‑‑ that to stay sober I had to go to AA. That had not been in the plans at all. I'd tried AA. On my own. It didn't work.
But I started to eat and sleep and get (relatively) healthy. And the big breakthrough came when I learned, and became convinced, that I had an incurable disease, which could only be kept in remission. Through AA.
I settled into the series of lectures and clean living, supported by the company of fellow patients and counselors like Bill Lamp, who wasn't even my counselor, and life started to get better and better in this safe environment.
Suddenly the four weeks were almost over and I started to panic. I wasn't sure if I would make it through the first week on the outside, considering my track record of repeated bouts of sobriety.
But Hanley put me in touch with the man who would be my sponsor and we went to a meeting. We became very close friends, Catholic Irishman and Presbyterian Scot. Only in AA! This time I realized I belonged.
I met then and am still meeting people that it is an honor to know. Through their friendship and support I became comfortable with being an alcoholic. Many of these new friends have died and I do miss them. But I would never have met them but for AA and my life would have been poorer.
Now I can say that taking the first half of the first step was the most important thing that has ever happened to me, and it happened at Hanley.
I am powerless over alcohol. It is no big deal. Don't drink and go to meetings.
So I stay active in the program and hang around with fellow alcoholics. I also keep in touch with Hanley, where it all began.
I can't quite believe almost 12 years have gone by since I was waiting for death. I'm now living a full happy life like never before. My sober days of the past don't come close, as I only knew then how to work, not how to live.
I celebrated my 75th birthday on February 28. I was the speaker at Hanley.
What a gift! What an honor!
