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(#2136) Cathy H (Cincinnati, OH)
3/30/1990 in Alexandria, KY  EVENT: Al-Anon Dinner  TYPE: Al-Anon, Female, Story

Powerful talk.

She grew up in a non-alcoholic Irish Catholic family but there were numerous Irish drinkers in the extended family.

Her husband, a military pilot, was delightful to be with most of the time between episodes that many women would have left their husbands over.

She knew at ten days married that there was something off with him and gritted her teeth for the next 12 years.

When he drank, he got mean, obnoxious and often beat up. She would get very, very quiet when he drank.

He did get sent to Vietnam when they were four months married and she was relieved. She even hoped he would get captured and tortured just enough to straighten him out.

He got out of the military and went to dental school. He had been beaten so bad by a bouncer that he stopped drinking during school. Then he got on drugs. He got thrown out of dentistry over his drug use. He was out of work for five years.

He would hunt successfully from his bed shooting out the window.

They had at least seven children.

His sisters came into AA first and introduced her to the idea that it was a family disease.

Even though he was not drinking or using at the time, she went on her own to a beginners Al-Anon meeting many miles away where she heard the three C's. She connected with the Al-Anons on a level she had never had even with her friends.

She thought she was the sanest person within miles of her home but had to realize she was insane.

She was asked,"Gee, alcoholism has really hollowed you out, hasn't it?"

She found a God of failure, of weakness because that is where Cathy was when she found Him.

Her son found God in jail. She thought if she had known that was going to happen she could have saved lots of money on Catholic School.

She, also, does a nice job going through the steps.


(1 hr 5 min) (14.9 MB) (id#2136)