From the Grass Roots

FIRST I wish to express my thanks to those who have written me. The value of these letters is incalculable--for five and a half years I have been struggling with the sole help of the literature which I receive from the General Service Office in New York. Thanks be to God, since September 11, 1952 I have not had a drink of alcohol. On that date I was in a private clinic. I had never heard of AA, but there I was visited by a man I had never seen before. With great surprise I listened to him talking about AA; he said that he belonged to that fellowship and that thanks to it he had managed to keep sober for a long time. For me that was the best news I had ever received. I had been fighting the thing alone and had been searching in the field of medicine and pharmacy (the latter being my profession) for a remedy for this illness which undermined my health and made my life unlivable. So I contacted AA in the clinic--and nothing in my life now occupies such a sacred place in my heart as this fellowship. I am especially grateful for letters written in Spanish, as I have only learned enough English to translate the literature from New York. It is a wonderful feeling for me to be in contact with an AA brother--it gives me more self-confidence. Since sitting down at the typewriter to write I feel that the thermometer of my will to remain sober has gone up several degrees.