Sober 17 years since July 1985 when she was in her mid-twenties.
The fat sister in a family where she would be with her mother in Chicago in the winter and with her father in California in the summers.
"I was never scared enough not to pick up a drink ... today I am afraid not to be afraid of that first drink. That keeps me going at times in sobriety"
She got a doctorate degree, had horses, supplied alcohol and drugs to her friends, which complicated her life when she first got sober.
Her entry in sobriety dovetailed with her estranged father's recovery.
She has had two children 9 years apart in sobriety.
At 15 years of sobriety, she lost nearly all, and her vanity nearly took her down.
AA and God carried her through it.
(48 min) (11 MB) (id#4231)