Sober since 10/17/1993, Terri describes her story as sad and tragic. Her mother was a single mom and bartender in Woodville, OH where Terri still lives. Her dad was a loner. Her older sister essentially raised her. Her first drunk was a blackout at 16. She was out of control, unemployable with multiple DUI's by age 21.
On 4/3/1993, 28 years old, 12 years into drinking, driving and yelling at her sister, missed a turn, ran head on into an oncoming car and killed a 14 year old boy riding in the back seat of the other vehicle. She was so emotionally retarded she did not get the gravity of what she had done and continued to drink. She was sentenced to 4 to 10 years in a maximum security prison then a pre-release center in Cleveland. She started going to AA meetings for all the wrong reasons. As with other women with similar charges, she was denied parole, given the whole 10 years and sent back to maximum security.
At 5 years in prison she was offered recovery and thought she had made a mistake - it was an intense program. At six years in, she finally started to come to terms with what she had done and become.
(51 min) (11.8 MB) (id#634)