Stop Mourning Your Wasted Years — Higher Power Doesn’t Waste Anything — Jane – Jane

About This Speaker Tape

Jane shares her full story at the Unity Group, tracing a life shaped by alcoholic parents, childhood trauma, and a relentless search for love. Growing up in upper New Jersey with an Italian musician father and a Southern mother, she witnessed domestic violence from an early age and became a people-pleaser. Pregnant at 16, she married briefly, then faced devastating news when her son Scott was diagnosed with a brain tumor at two and a half years old and given until age five to live. That crisis drove her first real conversation with Higher Power — an angry, fist-in-the-air promise that would echo through decades.

Jane cycled through waitressing, dancing in bars, pills, and escalating alcohol use while raising two children as a single mother. A spiritual awakening on February 5, 1978, after meeting a man in an after-hours club, led her to reconnect with a childhood friend and begin a faith journey. She quit bartending, married again, and moved to upstate New York in 1985. But without a real recovery program, she became what she now recognizes as a dry drunk — white-knuckling sobriety out of obligation rather than desire. A relapse in 1986 escalated quickly into daily wine and cocaine use.

The turning point came when her brilliant, straight-A daughter began failing every subject at age 12. Jane recognized the destruction she was causing and called her old friend, who found her a placement at Walter Hoving Home, a Christian women's rehab near West Point, where she completed a full year. After leaving, she returned to controlled drinking for years before eventually finding her way into Alcoholics Anonymous through a jail ministry. Her son Scott defied the doctors' prediction and lived to 34, passing in 2001.

Now 59, Jane works as a foster parent to teenagers and recently adopted a 12-year-old boy named Russell. She is planning to open a transitional home for women leaving the county jail system. She speaks with hard-won gratitude, noting that Higher Power told her to stop mourning her wasted years because He doesn't waste anything — He makes great omelets if you give Him good ingredients.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Jane introduces herself as a recovered alcoholic, greets listeners on both sides of the world
• 3:00 Growing up in upper New Jersey with two alcoholic parents, domestic violence, police visits as a child
• 8:00 Pregnant at 16, brief marriage, becoming a single mother — searching for love
• 12:00 Son Scott diagnosed with brain tumor at age two and a half, told he would die before five — angry prayer to Higher Power
• 17:00 Working as a dancer, introduced to pills to stay awake, alcohol to sleep — the vicious cycle begins
• 23:00 Spiritual awakening on February 5, 1978 — meets a man in an after-hours club, gives her life to Higher Power
• 30:00 Quits bartending, becomes a dry drunk, moves to upstate New York in 1985, marriage deteriorating
• 36:00 Relapse in 1986 at anniversary dinner, escalates to a gallon of wine daily plus cocaine
• 40:00 Daughter failing school becomes the wake-up call — enters Walter Hoving Home rehab for one year
• 47:00 Life now at 59: foster parent, adopted Russell at 12, plans to open a home for women leaving jail, Higher Power makes great omelets