Yesterday I got a good reminder from an old timer. He has over 40 years and is over 90 years old. His story is a good one for me. He came in about 45 years ago. He went to meetings everyday with but one hitch. He was still drinking. Yet he knew he needed this program. Finally he stopped, when he saw himself losing everything.
A woman, who has been to meetings on and off for a long time, came in yesterday and announced she was “coming back”. She said this with a laugh and said she had been on a “vacation”. That got to me and a lot of others in the room. Many of us who spoke talked about the seriousness of this disease.
When it came to our old friend, he reminded us that this is a disease. He talked about the mental obsession, the compulsion, and the craving, which drives us on to a drink. No easy thing to overcome and a warning to all of us what awaits us, if we should forget why we came here.
I was somehow reminded of a man, who came to meetings under court order many years back. He came to meetings with booze on his breath and often said he had the best part, because after the meeting he was on his way to a bar. One night we found him dead in the street outside the meeting. A relatively young man, it was a grim reminder for most of us that we could have been in his place.
Anyway, I was thinking of the disease aspect of alcoholism and how it was with me, when I was so desperate. I need to be reminded of this and be grateful for what I have.