Sober some 35 years since the early 1970s, one of the great, quiet servants of AA in North Metro Atlanta, Sims was introduced at this talk by his Al-Anon wife Susan.
He thought when he married her over 40 years earlier that she drank like him.
Two weeks after the honeymoon, she was calling the police on him and his friends.
I guess he wasn't always so quiet.
He made it big financially, big home and a yacht, but it was not enough.
In 1970, he went to his first AA at age 30. He stuck around for 90 days but got with the wrong crowd.
After exploring many treatment options, he finally sobered up at Peachford in Atlanta in its early days in their 28 day program.
He shares about learning lessons from the crazies in AA in Atlanta.
They went broke in early sobriety but eventually they turned an historic, high ceiling home into a rambling, multi-resident community for those who, for a variety of reasons, could not make it on their own.
It is so unique a place that, given the current laws and regulations, it might not get approved today. But I have been there on a number of occasions and it works.
Thank you both for all you have done to add to the quality of our lives.
Sims died sober on April 27, 2013 at the age of 73.
