Prom Night

I was as desperate as only the dying can be when I called our Central Office in Covina, California, and spoke with a woman named Gloria. It was around 5:30 P.M. on December 25, and I'd just come to for the last time. I was seventeen years old and in real bad shape. Gloria told me there was a meeting starting in an hour and asked if I could make it to the meeting without taking a drink, and if, as a courtesy, I would take a shower first. I told her I did not know if I could not drink, but I was willing to try real hard not to drink before the meeting. It was a long three-mile drive to the meeting place, and I was so focused on being on time that I was shocked when I made it without taking a drink. The only thing I remember about the first meeting was that I was there and that I had not had a drink all day. At the end, everyone stood up, held hands, and said, "Keep coming back!" And that's what I did, every day, three to four times a day.