A lively speaker and member of Al-anon 16 years since 7/24/1985, she says that "listening is the greaest way to share your love." Born in Midland, TX in 1944 to an Irish-Catholic family, she is 56 at the time of this share.
The message she heard from the church was "If you did good, you got good. If you did bad, you better watch out!" So she was a well behaved, scared little girl.
Her family were always "fine, everything is fine", so feelings were not shared. Her dad was a work-aholic, her mom and un-treated Al-anon with untreated alcoholism in her family.
Her family moved to San Antonio where she grew up.
She met her husband, and qualifier, Bill when they were seniors in High School. He did not drink. They dated for 4 1/2 years before marriage after gratuation. She became a teacher and loved it.
Bill started to drink socially and it began to escalate...for 19 years. His sobriety date, 8/6/1985, is two weeks after Sephanie came into Al-anon.
She tells a great story of Bill passing out on the toilet at the airport and the staff having to remove the stall door to get him out.
(1 hr 1 min) (14 MB) (id#1147)