Rick J. AFG Male

Rick J. (0:03)

I have a pretty good job for a newcomer. The Slowly Recovering Al-Anon. My name is Rick, good afternoon to you all. As they say up in Nebraska way, by the grace of God and the power of a program called The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous Fellowship called The Al-Anon Family Groups, a loving but very firm guidance of the big book Black Belt Al-Anon sponsor. It's not been necessary for me to plan any kind of death, yours or mine. Since the 10th day of April 1987, and to that I am most certainly grateful.

I'll go up as the Oakville Saturday morning on my family group. I missed my meeting this morning. I'm here in Dayton.

When I get home, they're not going to say, we're glad you were in Dayton. They're just going to say, you missed your meeting. And I'll say to them, if I did, I actually missed my home group is what I did. But man, have I ever been at a meeting this morning. Spectacular. My hometown is Oakville, Ontario.

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

Oakville is about...

Rick J. (1:17)

Is my flight down? I don't know if you can see everything in this podium here.

My hometown is Oakville, Ontario. I'm just outside of Toronto. I'd like to thank the Al-Anons for inviting me here. I'd really like to thank the AAs for paying for it. So, this has been vacation.

SPEAKER_2 (1:40)

Stick around, ladies. It'll happen.

Rick J. (1:43)

You imagine that, eh? Come in here, you get sober, throw your money into a tub. They throw a melty Al-Anon from Toronto to come to Dayton. Man, oh man, for the great use of your money. Fabulous.

SPEAKER_2 (1:55)

In fact, I didn't make it to Dayton.

Rick J. (1:58)

I was supposed to when I left yesterday, but somehow I ended up in Columbus. And like Randy said, it's an amazing kind of thing. So here's the process. I'm sitting in Toronto, and they announced that the plane is going to be delayed going into Cleveland, and I know that I have about a 35-minute connection to get the plane to Dayton.

And I get here six minutes after the plane left, so I go to customer service. United says, yes, there's a flight leaving to Dayton at 855, but it's full. They said, as a matter of fact, every flight from Cleveland to Dayton is full until tomorrow night. It was yesterday they said that till tonight. And I said, well, that's a bit of a problem. Nice airport, but I really don't want to sleep here. And so I kind of made arrangements to get to Columbus, the closest city to Dayton. And so then I phoned Mike, whose name was on the flyer. Jeanne had called me, but I lost her phone number. And so I phoned Mike, and the AA says, well, just rent a car.

I paid your money. Oh, a rental car. A bike car.

SPEAKER_2 (3:07)

Alcoholic, you? I'll show you.

SPEAKER_3 (3:11)

And then Jeanne calls me.

Rick J. (3:13)

She's at the airport, says, are you at the airport?

SPEAKER_2 (3:14)

I said, yeah. She said, well, why?

Rick J. (3:16)

I said, I'm still in Cleveland. And so I tell her the story. She says, the AA says, well, come and get me.

Hey, Robin calls me.

SPEAKER_2 (3:34)

Are you at 8-year-old?

Rick J. (3:35)

Where's Robin? Is she here? Rick, where's Robin at 8-year-old? She's in the ad. There you are. You're at both? Okay. I was getting the next message from you. Normally, I can tell.

Man, I do like they're going on. So she says, well, maybe I'll join Gene, and, you know, kind of come with you, come to Columbus and pick him. And then I go have some dinner, I get a little text, say, Randy's picking you up. And then Randy calls, and sure enough, he tells you that story. And I was amazed by that, because my belief in this power is such that the never-ending experiences that happened to me and to every one of us prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that when we do everything in our power, God will come in and take it the rest of the way.

I must do everything I could. I made every phone call I could. When you say, see the roaming churches when I get back home, my eyes are going to be, I'd be sending you another bill.

Anyway, got that all straightened out, but that really was the feeling, the feeling that overcame me. And then I got here this morning, and I hear this spectacular three speakers in a row, and then a fourth one to top that off.