A very energetic speaker, Sandy is sponsored long distance by Debbie H from California because the women in her area refused to sponsor her.
The only daughter, 2nd of four kids, she had to learn how to wear a dress in AA. Her mother was simple and hard working.
She had her first drink at age 13 and the magic happened. She spent the rest of her time persuing it and the guys who could get it.
Her mother put her out at age 14. She quit school, got a waitress job and met "him". They were together five years. It got physical for which she had her part in it as well. It was a real controlled, sick environment.
AA has taught her not to be so "sicky-dependent" on people.
She left him and went to New Orleans. She could not live and drink the way she wanted on a waitress salary so,
"I started to sell myself. That's what we do."
She returned to her mother's in Manchester, GA on the stipulation she not drink in the home and get her GED.
"That was my stage of controlled drinking...and I did that for maybe a month."
She got her GED and was one of the first seven women hired to work for the railroad in her home town.
She started using drugs to control her drinking.
"I thought I was moving up!"
Her stuff started being sold to go to the dope man. And she had to come back to mama one more time to get off the drugs.
She moved to Fitzgerald, GA to try to start over but got arrested for possession of dope. This time there was nobody to get her out until a week later.
Her lawyer guided her to Willingway (a treatment center in Georgia) as a way to keep her job.
There she met C D C and his wife Ida and came into AA getting exposed early to Joe and Charlie's Big Book Study.
It was the male old timers that saved her life even after 5 years sober. Then she got Debbie H as a sponsor at 10 years
Her amends making and career building is also a wonderful part of her story.
C D C spoke also at this same event:
(36 min) (12.4 MB) (id#1605)