Introduced by Al-Anon Jonie F. of Savannah, GA, Margaret is a very good presenter with a delightful southern accent. Her husband is her qualifier.
It makes no difference whether the drinking led to or was caused by the neurosis in the Al-Anon. The effects and the solution are the same.
With humor and insight, she describes how this neurosis manifests and grows as the behavior of the alcoholic becomes more reliably unreliable. It manifests in different ways, some complain to everyone about the alcoholic while others chose never to tell a living soul. Some kill or come close to killing the alcoholic.
Margaret grew up in a happy Christian home. She was blissfully unaware of alcoholism until, in high school, she met a happy-go-lucky fellow from an unhappy home who drank. She felt she could fix him. She married him at age 19 They became notorious in the town. In desperation she went back to church to fix herself.
Her husband started going to AA in 1948 but she did not see anything in it for herself.
In 1951 she began to compare herself, not to her neighbors, but to her Savior. Distain changed to compassion.
After a family crisis in their home she came into Al-anon and her husband back to AA in 1959.
She believes that if we work as hard at forgiving and forgetting as we do at remembring and reminding that we would have much happier homes in which to live.