Sober 16 years since 5/11/1972, Susan is one of six from a mid-western Irish-Catholic family. She had her first drink as a junior in high school. It filled the hole inside. She never had a social drink. She was always in trouble.
She was involved in theater. She went to Catholic schools through to college until she got expelled for entertaining too many, too much in a blackout.
She graduated from college and became a frequently hungover kindergarten teacher in a Sacred Heart school.
She always had a black cloud hanging over her head.
In Omaha, NE, her brother-in-law urged her to go to a psychiatrist who wanted to put her in the hospital but she could not because the FBI was coming that night to tap her phone She was being stalked and threatened.
She did go in the next day but she wasn't done. Another event included a padded room for six weeks. She was informed her teaching contract would not be renewed. But she was still not done.
"But the same thing was happening over and over again."
Then she met "Dirty Bill" on a blind date. He didn't drink but he said he did everything else well.
He introduced her to a woman who took her to her first meeting, March 2, 1967.
(59 min) (13.6 MB) (id#1767)