Sober 43 years since 12/13/1973, raised "Boston Proper" where the religion was "money, property and prestige", one of my favorite female speakers, I had my first chance at this event to meet and share some spiritual observations with this long time member of AA.
She was listed as "Mary T." on the schedule but Mary-Thayer is her first name and her lastname starts with S. I asked her about this and she has accepted that members have come to know her as "Mary T".
She was expected to be seen and not heard. That was not an easy task for a curious child. She was sent away to boarding school.
She started drinking in her early teens. After college she joined the Water Follies afterwards getting a job at her father's business in Boston.
She got married and pregnant in that order - "which is not the proper way to do it." She married him and became a battered wife. She left him and moved in with her parents.
"The progression of alcoholism set in." She was working and drinking late into the morning. She left home with her daughter and escaped her reputation to southern California where her sister lived. She drank like that for five more years adding valium on a doctor's suggestion.
"And the vicious cycle started." She was having DTs regularly.
The her daughter's friend's mother took Mary Thayer to her first meeting where she heard Sybil C, the first sober woman in AA in California. Sybil told Mary Thayer, "Welcome home honey."
Her journey in AA led her to Hugh and Beverly D who took her through the Program as outlined in the Big Book.
Beverly D of Chattsworth CA - 1993 in MT
(54 min) (9.4 MB) (id#1483)
