HERE’S TO YOUR HEALTH

This weeks HTYH is a continuation of Judy P.’s story:  I looked up at the mountain and said, “God if you don’t help me I’ll drink again. I don’t know where it came from, but for the first time in my life I felt an absolute peace and calm, it was like my best friend with their arm around me and I knew everything was going to be OK. The thought then occurred to me that I was a child of God and I don’t know where that thought came from either. I got a ride back to Atlanta, returned to my home group and got active in service work. For the longest time, I avoided the women in A.A., not because of anything they did or said, but because I thought if they knew who and what I was they would kick me out. That’s why my first two sponsors were men and although many people frowned on that, leave it alone, God’s doing the work and it’s none of your business.

I got a regular job at a temporary agency, one where I paid taxes and that sort of thing. That’s exactly the kind of job I needed because by the time I was ready to tell somebody off, or say something I shouldn’t, I was moved to another job. That temporary agency lasted for 2 ½ years until I went to work for a company that liked me and I liked them and I became an accounts person. I was with that company for 8 years and by the time I left there I was a regional manager. My job success had nothing to do with me but it had everything to do with Alcoholics Anonymous because they taught me how to get along with other people. By the time I left that job I had a security clearance with the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. I wore tweed suits everyday, carried a leather brief case and wore leather high heels and I could go into their data process center and look at anything in there. Two blocks from the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta was Lucky Street where I had formerly worked as a streetwalker. Is this ironic or what? I could see Lucky Street from the bank building and it was a constant reminder to me from whence I came. I also knew in my heart that if I ever picked up another drink of alcohol that my past would become my future and I thought about that every single day that I pulled into that bank’s parking lot. Only by God’s Grace can such a traumatic transformation occur. I met my next husband in Alcoholics Anonymous shortly after I was divorced. We were buddies, we had coffee together and went to meetings together and about a year after he got a divorce we spent the next two years together and then got married. We bought a three-bedroom house in Atlanta after we married and it had an upstairs apartment. Several of the people who came off the streets to our home group ended up living there until they could get a job and move on. I’m grateful for those people because by helping them it kept us sober. The newly sobered people had responsibilities and chores to do and they paid a small amount of rent until they were back on their feet, but most of all, it helped us to help them. Back then we didn’t have to worry about law suits and all the government regulations today that are involved with treating alcoholics.

My husband had been a professional football player and he broke his back the third game and was perpetually plagued by that injury for the rest of his life. We lived in Atlanta another 12 or 13 years, but as time went on my husband’s health began to fail, he was unable to work and then his mother in Ohio got really sick so we moved up north to help her. We bought an old farmhouse near her and fixed it up. I loved the country living because I had always been a city girl. Deer frequently appeared in our yard and for the first time ever, I learned to really notice and love all of God’s magnificent creation. To be continued.