A Mother's Heart

Today I sat next to my daughter as she celebrated one year of sobriety. I don't know that my heart has ever been so full. We just got off the phone, she called to tell me how grateful she was that I came to the meeting and I tried to tell her how happy I was to be there. I could barely express it because I kept choking up with tears. She said that she was so glad that she was causing me tears of joy after all the years of all the tears of pain. Oh, I don't care about that anymore. It is gone.

I got to see some old friends which was great. It was wonderful to see the love they have for my daughter. It was wonderful to see that she is an integral part of that group. I am so grateful that she is there, because truly that is where she belongs.

But the thing that I never expected and caused me to cry when I first saw it was the young women. The women who are sober less than a year. The ones who were thanking my daughter for always being there for them. For always answering the phone. For the help she has been to them. I don't know why I wouldn't have expected that, but I just didn't. Here she is, celebrating a year, with a whole little group of women behind her to whom she has already been "passing it on". Wow.

My heart is so full. To think of the lives that we in Alcoholics Anonymous are entrusted with every day. Precious daughters, precious sons, precious husbands, precious wives.... what a grave responsibility and what happy stories sometimes result.

What a happy day in our family today.

And sadly, for the rest of our family, they don't even care. I tried to tell her twin sister the other day that her sister's year anniversary was coming up and she responded by "I'm not into that kind of thing." I told her "You're sure interested when things aren't going so well." End of conversation. Ok.

That is OK. For my daughter and I, we know. We know.