Karin and her husband John both spoke at this event. She was raised in an alcoholic home in Lapland in northern Sweden. She has a delightful accent and a great sense of humor. She says in Al-anon you are new longer than you are in AA. There is more coming in and going out again than in AA. Coming to Al-anon to sober-up a loved one is a wonderful reason - it won't work - but it is a wonderful reason.
In the height of John's disease she went to a minister who told her there were three ways he could go: crazy, die or get help. She heard the first two. But that day something happened and she gave up trying to fix him. Her father was drinking and dying as was her husband. She was angry and once thought of putting a pillow over John's face when he was passed out.
He was a pain to have along when they went anywhere. The sloshier John got the more proper she got - we over-compensate so much. When John got sober in AA, Karin went into the indescribably smokey rooms and fell in love with it. John asked her to quit work and stay home with the kids. She remembers what it was like coping with his early sobriety and of coming into Al-anon for the first time.
Here John's talk at the same event...
(1 hr ) (13.9 MB) (id#306)
