Sober 18 years since 5/1/1981, she was amazed when she found in AA, alcoholics who were OK with that and knew if they did a few simple things everything else was going to be OK as well.
She drank from 14 to 27 years old. She grew up on a farm in Iowa and went to Southern California at age 17 because she was too lazy to be a farmer.
She knew her parents, brothers and Iowa were the problem.
She was kicked out on the streets shortly after she got to California.
"I was at the mercy of whoever came along. In the beginning they were pretty nice people but by the end of my drinking they were as sick, or sicker than I was because I sought out sordid places... I was raised better than that but thumbed my nose at it because I couldn't live up to it."
"The more my drinking went on the lower I lowered my lines."
She joined the army to get out of where she was at and knew how to play the game.
Her story of meeting, dating and falling in love with her current husband is powerful.
"I didn't know what I didn't know until I knew it."