The Reluctant Swede

A young Swedish post-doctoral student in computer science living in New York reached out to Lamplighters in the winter of 1998. His drinking had escalated out of control and he needed help. I was his Twelfth-Step contact. He said he didn't want to go to a f2f meeting because of his difficulty with English, but he reluctantly agreed to meet me when I said I would bring him some AA literature in Swedish. When he showed up, I handed him the Big Book in his mother tongue and invited him into the meeting for a cup of coffee (I had arranged to meet him in front of the meeting). It was a cold night, so he ventured into his first f2f AA meeting. He remarked that we all looked pretty normal. Several days later, he had read the Big Book and wanted to meet again.