vol 291. A Long 2 Weeks with Margaret Rose

SPEAKER_00 0:01 We believe that alcoholism is a disease, and that Alcoholics Anonymous is one solution to that disease. I'm here to bring you the voices of its members. Everyone that comes on the show, including myself, is an active member and has found recovery in the rooms of AA. As you listen, please take what works for you and leave the rest.

SPEAKER_02 0:26 Hi, I'm an alcoholic. My name's Margaret Rose. My sobriety date is February 18th, 2002. I did not do that.

God did. I have a sponsor with 44 years of sobriety. She has a sponsor with 46 years of sobriety. And I am a sponsor today.

I have a service commitment at my home group. My service commitment. I've had one ever since I've had six months of sobriety. So thank you, Tara.

Thank you for allowing me to share my story. Okay, I am just the youngest of five children. I have two brothers and two sisters. My two brothers have died from this disease.

One of them drank himself to death. The other older brother committed suicide. He jumped let go on a 10-story building in Honolulu, Hawaii. My sister has alcohol-related dementia.

And I have one normal sister. Whatever that means. That means she can have one drink and stop. That's not my story.

So I was raised being the youngest with a lot of parties at my house, you know, 10 years older than I am. A lot of police got involved. And I learned at a very young age to stuff what I'm thinking and stuff what I don't want to share. Uh I am a stuffer before I came to Alcoholics Anonymous.

You know, I stuffed and I drank. So oh wow. You know, it's you know, I drank first drink, 12 years old, last drink, 42 years old. Uh college, high school, all that.

Drink, drink, drink. I don't know how I managed to get two degrees in geriatrics and recreation, but I did. And I remember making pouring wine in the little plastic cups for happy hour at work and taking sips of the plastic glasses full of wine. So the drink was there.

Um, yeah, my I had a great childhood. You know, I learned from my siblings, my two brothers and my sister with alcohol-related dementia. I learned from them not how to drink, but how to have alcohol and have it have many consequences. I have some consequences during my drinking.

I met my first husband. I have uh two of them, but I met my first husband in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous down in San Jose. My friend Carol, she planted the seed. No, what she did was screw up our drinking together.

And she got sober when she was 24, and she's still sober today. But she took me to my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I announced myself Margaret Rose, and I told everyone I was confused. I got a big book out of that meeting because there was a raffle.

But did I attend Alcoholics Anonymous? Nope. Did I go? No.

But we went out for coffee. We used to do that back in the olden days. Go out for coffee at a coffee shop. And Cheryl said, sit over here, and this man said, sit over here.

And he was much cuter than Cheryl, and he had a mustache, and he had 90 days of sobriety. So that man uh became my husband, and he went to meetings, and I did not, because I don't think I have a problem. I don't think I'm alcoholic. My brothers and sisters are alcoholics, I attract alcoholics, but I'm not one of those people.

I'm just not. So we got married, and he went to um Alcoholics Anonymous just a little bit, not too much. I got pregnant with our first son, Kyle, and that's where I started being an alcoholic mom. And I say that because I drove loaded all the time with my children in the car all the time.

So uh Kyle, our firstborn, passed away. He's in heaven, and I drank his death, and I drank, and I drank, and I stuffed. I stuffed my son's death. I used to go to the cemetery, they had a bench there.

So I used to uh bring a six-pack of bud and uh and a bottle of wine and sit on the bench and just talk to my son drinking. So good news, you know. We moved here to Sacramento to uh start over, and we did. We had two more children, two more boys, and a divorce.

We did not divorce because of my drinking. You know, I mean, when you do the steps and you find out your part in life situations, you know, that's a good thing. But the marriage was not healthy. I was living with a dry drunk, and I didn't know that's what they were called.

So I left that marriage with my two boys, and drinking continued, and it continued. So I go to an Al Anon meeting because my doctor, I didn't tell him I was drinking, and my doctor suggested I go to another 12-step program to help me work through my ex-husband, and so I did. And guess what? I met another alcoholic.

Oh my goodness. So, in an Al-Anon meeting, so that relationship, I call that one my drinking buddy. When we were together, we we drank. When we weren't together, we drank.

You know, he when I met him, he had five years of sobriety. And I get home and I said, What do you want to do tonight? And he said, Let's drink. And me, not being alcoholic, I said, Okay.

And we did that for like seven years. Sometimes the house got a little crazy. I have two boys, he had three children as well. But you know, I drank because I'm not the alcoholic.

He needs to go to AA again. I don't. So um one evening, um, here's a history of my drinking before I got sober. I'm in the medical field, and I used to work at Auburn Faith Hospital, and I used to go to the Safeway up there in Auburn and buy an 18 pack of Budweiser.

I put it in a brown paper bag, and I marked it Margaret's lunch, and I put it in the refrigerator in the nurse's lounge. You know, no one ever tried to take my lunch. And I'm saying that because I am the alcoholic who drank right after work. It was cold because it's been sitting in the refrigerator, and I'm driving, you know, down to Sutter's heights.

My two boys are 10 and 12. I'd pick them up and you know, tell my daycare provider, I don't have any money, I can't pay them, pay you. So she asked us to leave, which I thought was not very nice. But I, you know, I get it now.

So now, fast forward, I'm working in the doctor's office, and that ex-husband who was 19 years sober, and he called me and said he had heard I was driving and drinking with his children in the car. His children. And I'm like, no, I'm not. It's like that's what I heard, and I know that's what you're doing, and I'm coming to take them away from you, but don't tell them.

So you know, the boys and I get home at the apartment, and daddy shows up, and I said, Your dad's your dad's here because he's taking you away from me. He says, I'm an alcoholic. And my 12-year-old said, Margaret, he called me Margaret, 12 years old. Margaret, you are an alcoholic.

And I'm no, I'm not. And he says, I found your wine. Because at this point, I'm drinking wine and I used to squeeze it out of the box in a wine bottle and shove that underneath my seat. Again, alcoholic mom that drove loaded all the time.

So, you know, when he told me that he found my bottle, you know, I was very excited in my head, because thank God, don't you know I need a drink? Their father's being an idiot. That he's taking them from me. And so that's what I was saying in my head, thank goodness, because I need a drink.

And he looked at me and he said, Margaret, not even mom, mommy again. It was Margaret, and he said, I emptied it out. So I looked him dead in the eye and called him a little bastard for taking my wine and emptying it out from my car. You know, before they left, I told both of them, my 10-year-old and I were looking for a meeting.

That's uh, you'll see the phone book back in early 2000s. And I found a meeting right after work because that's what I needed, because I drank right after work. And as they were leaving, I said, I will do this AA thing for two weeks. That's it, two weeks.

I want my boys back. So my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm working down here, I work for a doctor's office, and I go because it was early, and I just needed this two weeks. That was my plan. So I go to this meeting, I sit in the back, I'm wearing all black.

My hair was very short and spiked, and it was black. So I'm going through the literature on how to be an alcoholic because I'm not an alcoholic. These, you know, my children, my ex-husband, oh boy. You know, so I'm looking at the literature on how to be an alcoholic, and I look up, they introduce the chairperson, and it's my ex-husband sharing my first meeting of alcoholics anonymous.

Yes, the man that had taken my children away from me not even 24 hours is at my first meeting, and he is chairing the meeting. So um, I was a little upset because he didn't talk about me. That meeting uh had a break, and so I went outside, I was smoking, smoking that, and he came up to me and he said, I'm glad you're here. And I said, Fuck you.

And people are staring at me because I just told the person that was asked to share this meeting to um fuck off, but I did, and I stayed at that meeting, and the next night I went to a woman's meeting at Gibbons because I did not want him to show up. So I found a woman's meeting, and then of course his wife's there, you know. I think they're following me, which is you know, nonsense now. But I go to this woman's meeting, and when I left, these ladies told me to keep coming back and gave me their phone numbers, and I'm like, I'm only here for two weeks, but you know, thanks.

I get a number. So I went the next day to a meeting, and the next day, and before you know it, my two weeks is up, and I'm going to more meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. Not sharing, not talking, not letting you people know that I'm alcoholic. I go to this meeting in Folsom, and this woman, she was sharing how she's a mom.

She has two kids, how she used to drink all the time with her two children. She'd bring strangers home. And then she got introduced to this power greater than herself, and she chooses to call God. And I'm like, She sounds like me.

I'm gonna go ask her if I can have our God. So I walked up to her and I said, Hi, I'm Margaret Rose. Um, can I have your God? Because I have to be, I'm trying to be this sober mom.

Can I have your God? And she said, No, which I thought was very rude. But she said, What I can do is you can choose your own conception, your own God, Margaret Rose, and we're gonna do that by going through the first 164 pages of this book. There's 12 steps, and we're gonna start at one and work our way down, and that's what I did.

I worked the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I became of service at six months because Donna used to tell me service keeps you sober, and if I'm having a pretty shitty day and I have to go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, either be the birthday person or the secretary, because I'm having a shitty day and I don't want to go, I go, and my higher power shows me thank you. And this power that I have that I choose to call God has gotten so much stronger, everyone, so much stronger from that day in 2002. So much stronger.

And I thank Alcoholics Anonymous for giving me the opportunity to walk through situations that you said that would baffle me. I got the promises, and I am grateful. I didn't even know what that word meant. I didn't even use that word.

Grateful. That's about it. So, Alcoholics Anonymous and this power greater than myself that I choose to call God. You know, you can get a God too.

Because you could define your own conception of this power greater than yourself. And you know, when I got sober and my two little boys were in the car and they would ask for a sip of mommy's juice, and I would hand them the cup, they were shocked because guess what was in there? Juice. Because I used to say, no, this is mommy's juice, and seeing that was a gift.

You know, things that I walked through sober that I never thought I would do. You know, it's amazing. It's amazing. Donna, my sponsor for I had her for 18 years.

I was there when she took her last breath, and that was a gift. I was there giving her pain medication, not stealing it afterwards, but I got to give her medicine and make her comfortable. And I miss her every day. But I do have another wonderful sponsor that I've had since then.

Lots of years of sobriety, and I believe my higher power, a godshot, puts women in my life that have a lot of sobriety. Because I think my God thinks I'm gonna believe someone that has double-digits sobriety. That's what I believe. And I have had three surgeries, two on my back while I was sober.

While I was sober, I was told on my last surgery I can't work anymore, and I was devastated. My surgeon is telling me you cannot do this, you have to go on long-term disability. What? No way, and yes way, Margaret Rose.

So I have a husband, I know, I know what you're thinking. I did it again, and I met him 32 years ago at an Al-Anon meeting that I was going because my husband was the alcoholic. His wife had a trouble drinking, and he came back into my life. I tell him he stalked me on Facebook, you know, just the 30 years that we've been apart, but now we're together and we've been together 13 years.

We just got married, just got married, just it'll be two years in February, and you know what? He has never had a drink, a drug, a cigarette, or an avocado in his whole life. Can you believe that? Not even an avocado.

Oh boy, and still, he still, we're together, no avocado. So my 10-year-old that helped me find that meeting, he has grave emotional and mental disorders. But the good news, today, he has two years and nine months of recovery. Amazing.

You know, I'm here to tell you I can't fix that son. I had to walk through it with him when his mental illness it got pretty severe. But I didn't drink. I didn't drink.

And so and that twelve year old, you know, that called me Margaret. I still can't get over that. Anyway, today he calls me his best friend and Alcoholics Anonymous put my son. Through med school.

All I did was not drink. So the son that I'm extremely close with, you know, today, he's a doctor. My two and a half year old sober son, he works in in the mental health field. All I did was not drink.

Thank you, Alcoholics Anonymous. So my suggestion, don't you hate that? My suggestion. No, this is what I want you to do.

No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. My suggestion is get a sponsor, take the steps, get a home group, and your life is going to fucking change. And if you, you know, if you want to be miserable, you know, call me and I'll listen to you be miserable.

Because my primary purpose is to carry the message to the suffering alcoholic. And I do that with the women I sponsor, and they keep me sober. And those first 164 pages of our big book, I was told 23 years ago that if I have an issue, a problem, there's the solution in those first 164 pages. So with that, thank you so so much, Tara.

SPEAKER_00 23:29 Okay, done. Okay, thank you, Margaret Rose. SPEAKER_02 23:34 Did I I babbled, huh? SPEAKER_00 23:36 No, no, no, no.

It may feel that way, but no, it was a lovely story. I have some program-related questions and some clarifying questions for your story, which we're gonna get out of the way first. Definitely want to say congratulations on your marriage. You're still newlyweds.

Yeah, that's very sweet. That's very sweet. Congratulations. SPEAKER_02 24:01 Yeah, when he proposed, I thought he had fallen down because he was on his knees and he came on my chair.

Oh, my sister and my son are like, you're lying. I don't know, really. He proposed because we've been together and there was no ever talk of it. Yes, I have a good man today.

SPEAKER_00 24:27 That's very sweet. And you said you I thought you said you met another alcoholic in Al Anon, but then you said he you're married to someone who's never drank alcohol. Is that did I get it? SPEAKER_02 24:41 Yes, no, the the Al Anon husband, he was an alcoholic.

And when I met him, he had five years of sobriety, and I just met him at an Al-Anon meeting. Got it. That he was looking for a hostage, I believe he he called me, and I left that marriage at nine months because he just couldn't get sober, and I have to look out for my children and myself. SPEAKER_00 25:08 Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so your husband now has never had a drink, he's never done drugs, and he's never eaten an avocado. SPEAKER_02 25:18 Yeah, drugs, drinking, cigarette, or an avocado. Why avocado? I don't know.

I I've been trying to get him for many years. He just won't eat it. That is so weird. SPEAKER_00 25:34 When people say what is your favorite food, I say avocado.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because I can I'm in the mood for an avocado no matter what. If I don't feel like if I'm hungry and nothing sounds good, I'll always eat an avocado.

Oh, absolutely. And then I'll turn it into guacamole. I mean, there's so much you can do with it. He's really missing out.

SPEAKER_02 25:53 When my mother-in-law came out to visit, she lived to be 103. They went to the grocery store and he's holding, you know, this avocado in his hand, and she she even said, What is that? He said, It's an avocado. She goes, I've never seen anything like that.

Where are they from? Upstate New York, near the Canadian border, about about two-hour drive. SPEAKER_01 26:20 Hmm. SPEAKER_02 26:21 Maybe it's a very small town.

Oh, I just remembered something that's gonna talk about. SPEAKER_00 26:27 Oh no, this is what QA is for. Please. Let's hear all about it.

I would love to. SPEAKER_02 26:35 Well, actually, I tripped and fell in the street my second day there. And uh I didn't really choose the best traveling companion to uh go with, which I wasn't aware of until we actually got to Canada. So I had very nice three alcoholics pick me up off the street, and you know, when they picked me up, I felt this tug on my left hand side, like if you pull your finger, that tugging this.

Yeah, and they're focused on my knee because I was leading, and I'm like, I'm fine, my knee's fine. So they helped me up and then I continued to walk. I think our hotel was two miles to the convention center, and I still went to meetings. I you know, I got my knee cleaned up, but I'm telling you, by the next day I could barely breathe.

It hurt to talk, it hurt to walk, and I'm like, something is wrong with me. So ending this long story, actually, and then when I went Saturday night, that's where I met Mary in line in Canada, and she says, You're Margaret Rose, and I'm like, How does she know my name? Yeah, I'm Margaret Rose. And thinking she rated my name tag, and you know, she thanked me for 15 years ago telling my story and being an alcoholic mom that carried her through because of the guilt and shame that I, you know, we feel when we're alcoholic moms.

So that was so amazing because that's where I met her, and that's how we hooked up. But you know, I I went to the doctor, of course, when I got home, and you know, several visits, several CT scans. I fractured four ribs when I fell. SPEAKER_00 28:48 Oh my god, and you traveled back with broken ribs?

SPEAKER_02 28:53 Yes, mm-hmm. And you know, I was in a really shitty bed at the hotel as the person I was with. I was in the height of bed couch. So now I'm home and I'm thinking about all this negativity about this trip, and yeah, I infractured for ribs.

Yep, so still dealing with that pain. It's it's just been awful. SPEAKER_00 29:21 Yeah. SPEAKER_02 29:22 Mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

When I got home, you know, I isolated, I didn't go to meetings. One, the number one is because the pain I have I have been in pain with you know, my back surgeries, but this was different. And it hurt so bad, you know. Husband helping me get into bed and get out of bed.

It's just horrific. But anyway, that's just my latest walkthrough without picking up a drink. SPEAKER_00 29:55 Yeah. SPEAKER_02 29:56 Donna used to tell me, no matter what, you don't pick up a drink.

I'm like, I got it. No matter what. Early in sobriety, your children are gonna grow up, they'll probably act stupid. Your heart's gonna be broken, maybe your heart will be happy.

Don't pick up a drink. And I believe that. I am a true believer again. SPEAKER_00 30:23 Yeah, you don't pick up, even if your ass is falling off, there's no reason to pick up a drink.

Right. How long have you been sober? Coming up on 10 years in February. SPEAKER_02 30:38 Oh, I'm February too.

SPEAKER_00 30:40 Yeah, yeah, you are. Um 224, you're 218. SPEAKER_02 30:46 Yay! SPEAKER_00 30:47 Yeah, nice.

Yeah, I'm gonna ask you a few more questions, okay? No, we're I'm loving this. This is lovely. Um, okay, so you are so you broke your ribs.

Well, and I appreciate you telling that story because so often when we tell our experience, strength and hope, we don't have an opportunity to share how we get through the hard times sober. So maybe I'm gonna poke a little bit more. So, July, you break your ribs and you begin isolating, and you canceling my sponsor, canceling my sponsee. Oh, okay.

So you're really isolating. Uh-huh. Not following through with commitments. That's after so many years of sobriety.

I imagine when you say you're gonna do something, you do it. And now you're not. So tell us what happened and have you gotten back into the rooms? Have you gotten back into the groove, or are you still in transition to getting back to where you were before the convention?

SPEAKER_02 31:51 No, I'm I'm out there. Um it lasted a week. Oh. Yeah, so it was probably, you know, my worst seven days, but I did not actually maybe I'm not I'm remembering and not being truthful.

So I did not go to an outside meeting until after six weeks of the four fractures. But what I did go to was Zoom, you know, and I'm I'm the kind of person that likes to go in real life. You know, I frowned upon Zoom when it first started. It's like, please, I need people, because I'm a people person, and I need people around me.

So I actually I would say it's been maybe two months that I've been actually back in the rooms in real life. But thank God for Zoom. Yeah, something that I didn't expect or even want in my life is saving my life from no matter what, don't pick up. Because just sitting is a bitch.

The chairs that they they probably go to the shitty chair store and say, we need chairs for this meeting. You know, we're starting a new meeting, we need all the shit chairs. Oh, we have plenty. Yeah, you know.

Oh, look, Margaret Rose, yeah, she can she's fallen off her shitty chair. Yeah. Keep coming back. It works.

SPEAKER_00 33:29 My sponsor, um, who um who you remind me a lot of, uh, she bring would bring a she had a meeting cushion that she brings with her to all of her meetings. Oh yeah. And she just she had chronic pain and she was like, bring him a cushion. And I don't care what you guys think about it, because of the shitty chairs that they get a discount.

SPEAKER_02 34:00 Yeah, it's like when I show up at a meeting when I inserted it with my walker decorated with lights and crazy. SPEAKER_00 34:09 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So you talked about um working the steps. You you said I think uh might have been, no, it wasn't with your suggestion. At some point you were talking about the, you know, your oh, when you met your sponsor and you asked for her god, and she said, No, but we're gonna read the 164 pages. We'll do the steps, we're gonna start at one.

And you talked about how you became of service uh at six months, and that it helps you get to a meeting even when you don't want to go. And I think you said my higher power shows me thank you. Did you say that? SPEAKER_02 34:50 I keep my uh commitments, I'm a full believer, and service keeps you sober.

Because it's like Donna, she was the secretary that the Alano was just starting up 23 years ago, because that's what I have, and that's where she was part of the Alano. And so she said, so starting up meetings, you know, and she was doing a Thursday night meeting, and she told me um that I suggested that I be the coffee person. And I'm I looked at her and I'm like, I don't know how to make coffee. And she's like, You will be the coffee person on Thursday night.

And I said, Oh, I can't. And now you know how they get flustered at us. I go, I can't do that. My favorite TV shows on.

SPEAKER_00 35:45 I mean, it's Thursday night. SPEAKER_02 35:46 Yeah, what do they used to call it? Yeah, that was the TV night, and then it was like Satan, her voice changed, and that was back in the old days when you could tape TV shows. She said, Margaret Rose, tape it.

It was frightening, Tara. I swear it was it was not her. And I'm like, okay. So that's what started my service work.

Oh boy. SPEAKER_00 36:16 That's yeah, that's great. And so when you do your service work, you I guess I'm looking for an understanding of the expression that you use. My higher power shows me thank you.

Uh is that an expression? No. SPEAKER_02 36:35 I just said that because it was what came out of my mouth, I guess. Um, so service, being of service and alcoholics anonymous.

You know, I wanted to make sure, you know, be of service, talk about the steps. SPEAKER_00 36:52 That's okay. If it's, I mean, I was I thought it was beautiful if you're saying like my like you get rewards when you show up and you follow through. Your higher power thanks you for following through.

But I was probably just trying to make it poetic, unnecessarily. SPEAKER_02 37:12 Because that's what happens. You know, I have a higher power that I can thank for bringing me into that commitment when I don't want to go, because my higher power also bitch slaps me. Oh, please do tell more.

Well, this is what my higher power does. So if I do something without running it by anyone, rather it be good or bad, or if I'm sitting in a meeting and someone is sharing, and I'm thinking, God, I need to get out of here. You know, why did I go to this meeting? You know, the negativity steps in.

And I swear to God, that's when my higher power bit flaps me to put me back in reality and remind me why I'm an Alcoholics Anonymous. And when I say things, I tend to be blunt. That's the best way, because that's what people have said. I'm blunt, I'm outspoken when it comes to my recovery and others, you know, in my life, their recovery, you know, I do 12-step every day.

And when I'm gonna say something not very nice, probably negative, probably swear a lot, my higher power, I swear to God, reaches over and covers and covers my mouth like that. And here goes, oh I don't even get to share it because it's not very spiritual. Yeah. SPEAKER_00 38:52 Were you spiritual before you came to no?

SPEAKER_02 38:56 I went to a Catholic high school, you know, transferred in the tenth grade. That's the closest, you know, and I went there only because my sister was 16 and got pregnant, and my two brothers were like in and out of juvenile hole, and they were the stoners. We had stoners or jocks, and I choose to call myself an imba. I was in between a stoner and in between a jock, so I called myself an imba.

Because I did sports, I played softball through college, so I did a sport, so there's the jock in me, but oh look, can I have a cigarette? Yeah. Oh wait, I want to drink. I in 20, I just turned 66 on Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 39:55 Oh, well, happy birthday. SPEAKER_02 39:57 Thank you. And since that birthday, I have never smoked a joint ever. I prefer to drink.

SPEAKER_00 40:11 Is there anything that you left out of your story that you'd like to share? And we can pause and see if anything surfaces. There's anything you'd like to share. SPEAKER_02 40:24 You know, I just wanted to emphasize I didn't want to spend too much on my childhood because it was wonderful.

But you know, I was uh the youngest of five. Uh having them walk through deaths, you know. My brother, he walked up, he was at he went up the 11-story parking garage in Honolulu, and he walked forward and then he walked backwards again, and then he walked forward again. I choose to say he let go.

He lands on the ground. Best friend works for a Honolulu police department. He identified my brother. I drank.

I drank that death. My other sober brother, I did everything sober. I planned everything, I cleaned out his apartment. Totally opposite from the brother I drank.

So that's the oh boy, yeah. No, but I think I'm okay. I just I just hope, you know, that it went well for you. I I just wanted to carry the message, and I hope I was able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 41:37 You absolutely carried the message. And it and it was entertaining and enjoyable and funny and endearing as well. So I appreciate it. I have just one final question, and then I'll let you back to your early Christmas celebration.

SPEAKER_02 41:55 Oh, it doesn't matter. SPEAKER_00 41:57 For okay, for the listener that is suffering with or without sobriety under their belt, what final message would you like to leave them with? SPEAKER_02 42:10 For the one that is still suffering in the rooms, out of the rooms, I because like when I suffer or what I see uh my experiences to talk about it, to open your mouth and you know, I need help. I have a problem, I think I have a problem drinking.

And I I would encourage him to go to a shitload of meetings. I would even meet that person at a meeting. You know, like the day I got married, I went to a the morning meeting, and my husband's like, You're getting married, gotta go to that meeting. Yeah, I'm meeting someone, a newcomer with two months.

SPEAKER_00 42:53 Yeah. That is a beautiful commitment, Margaret Rose. SPEAKER_02 43:00 Thank you. Because how I was raised, you know, with Donna.

I mean, I met Donna and she had 21 years of sobriety. That's what it should have brought up. She had 21 years of sobriety, and I looked at her, I go, that will never happen to me. And she's like, you know how they nod their head and they smile.

Yeah, okay. Let's continue reading. It will never happen. And look at this 23 years.

Crazy. And my son, the youngest, he gives me a chip on birthdays, and he says, Mom, it's been a long two weeks. Yeah. Yeah.

And of course, everyone laughs because that's part of my story only coming here for two weeks. Uh-huh. He says that, and it's true. It's been a long two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 43:58 For more information, read the first 164 pages of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous or visit keepcomingback.net.