Back From Hell

When I arrived in AA in 1984, I carried all my possessions with me in a half-full trash bag. I was blessed with a sponsor who knew the Steps and lived in the solution. He possessed the patience and perseverance it takes to work with a low-bottom, hardheaded drunk like me. I became very close with him and his family and we worked the solution together for five years. Then he started to become a bit distant in the last year we were together, before he fell to the disease and died in 1990. The entire AA community in our area was shocked in disbelief as he had been a backbone of support for so many of us.