The Higher Power of Experience Over the Higher Power of Argument – Sam S.

It's so, Chance, that Sam, our next speaker, our friend of all time, was the first to stand in this relation to me. I shall never forget my first sight of him there in his pulpit, but it was more than a sight and a sound. It was a feeling that here was utter honesty, great courage, complete forthrightness. And here was the man who more than any in those early days made me feel that the vision which had been so suddenly given to me was real. So Sam, to me and to Ebby, and sent out all into our society has been a channel of grace like no other. I think he is called the Reverend Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. But I'm going to call him up here as Dan. Dear Bill and dear Lois and dear everybody in AA, because there isn't any crowd in the world that I love more or feel more at home with than I do this crowd. In St. Louis, after this same occasion, a gal said to me, you may not be an alcoholic, but you sure do talk like one. Well, I've been looking forward to this tremendous 25th anniversary as you have. it has been one of the privileges of my life to be associated with all this from the early days I still think that Bill gives me more credit than I deserve but he does that with a lot of you and that's why he makes swans out of so many geese We were doing some work in my old parish in New York, Calvary Church, that was helping some people to find God. And Ebby and Bill and some of the early Founders saw some things going on that they felt might be helpful to alcoholics, and they incorporated them in the Principles. also had made some mistakes that didn't need to be made twice, and they didn't incorporate them in. And these 35 years have seen millions of people's lives different because of what began to happen in those early and sometimes unpromising days. Together with you all I thank God for what's happened. Now, in a way, principles are more important than persons, hence anonymity. But principles alone never saved anybody from defeat and trouble. You probably preached many a sermon to yourself when you were in the greatest need like I have. Principles have got to be found at work in people so that they become incarnate and visible and available to people in need. They've got to be clothed with light and with caring and with intelligent actions and emotions. Behind people that have found an answer, there are other people that are found an answers. And so on back through a long kind of apostolic succession of real, genuine spiritual discoveries that must have been set in motion originally by God. But he didn't give those principles a kind of a primeval push. And I expect them to go by themselves. He was in the principles. He was also in the people who were living out the principles and in whatever spiritual methods they used to find helpful in carrying those principles out and winning their battles. I think in all human transformation, whether of a directly spiritual kind or whether through that doctors and psychiatrists and other men of science do, God is present and at work whence otherwise comes faith and hope to desperate people or indeed any desire to be better instead of calling away to die like an animal now the program of recovery turns as we all know on to faith and a power greater than ourselves willpower and the appeal to it as sufficient to get any of us out of this trouble are a snare and a delusion that isn't only true about alcoholics that's true about everybody else when you think you're able to manage your own life without God you add pride to whatever other sin you may have and pride is not only the first of the seven deadly sins but it ought to have a category all by itself. Because it's vastly more subtle and vastly more dangerous than any other sin whatever. It's always striving to sit in the seat of God. Many people's problems begin to be solved the minute they know they can't solve them by themselves. That puts pride right out of the driver's seat. God would be psychologically necessary even if he weren't theologically necessary. Nobody but God is big enough to tell the human ego to move over. But now, how's that going to be suggested in a program that was to reach not only Catholics and Protestants and Jews, but skeptics and agnostics and atheists and total non-believers in any kind of regard? Some people have had unhappy experiences with churches, and many think they have. How are you going to avoid the recalling of those experiences with possibly disastrous emotional consequences? A word or a phrase that brings back an unfortunate association isn't the right one to use, especially in these early stages. And it was, I think, one of the true inspirations of the 12 steps that phrases like a power greater than ourselves and God as we understood him were used. They meant that if anybody came into AA with already formed loyalties that concerned, let's say, any one body of Christians, that loyalty would not be interfered with. It would be strengthened by their AA association. They meant nobody was going to tamper with their religion. They meant you could begin with a very modest faith for really what one was dealing with was whatever power is helping these other people. You may not know much about what that power was. We only knew these people used to be defeated and now they were victorious in one very important area of life. Now that never did mean, nor can mean, as the Montaigne was telling us a moment ago, that we remain satisfied with the truncated idea of God with which probably we began. The God that is, is a greater or more than we can ever understand of him and we learn more of him by experience than ever we do by argument or field of discussions with the beliefs as to whether our own church is better than some other church. Now, if we're satisfied with the belief that our church tells us to hold, then we'll go along with them and grow as that church encourages us to do. But if we come to AA with little or no faith, our initiation does not begin by being asked to swallow a lot of doctrine that we're not yet prepared to swallow. AA says begin with as much faith as you've got. There's something, there is some higher power that's helping these people. What we have to deal with is the God that really is and not our human concepts of him. Much better for anybody to pray to the God that is, he with no name and we with no words, than to pray for your own creation of God with words prettier than a poem but fictitious. I think the first prayer gets through because it's trying to be in spirit and in truth. And we hear that the Father seeks as such to worship him. The second will not get through because it set out a conformity to somebody else's faith and not out of the heart. Sometimes for beginners, suggestion is better than explication. Some of the often absurd modern names for God like the man upstairs are crude attempts to use an easily grasped picture to suggest God rather than to use theological language to dogmatize about him. Beginners need all kinds of practical self-starters, encouragers to experiment. But nobody ever found faith sitting in a chair reading a book wishing he had it. We often begin by acting as if faith were true in order to find out whether it is true. And that's precisely what the scientist does when he thinks a hypothesis may be true. He treats it as if it were true long enough to find over whether it's true or not. And the same way, it works out the same with faith. I've always thought the first step ought to be made severely experimental and put within the reach of the greatest skeptic provided he's got an open and an honest mind. I can't get away from the feeling that fundamentally AA is a spiritual experience. What gives the lift is the power greater than ourselves. I remember the very early days of Calvary Mission in the Gas House District on 23rd Street in New York. A character came in one night named Larry. He came because he had met on the street an old pal of his in the days of what they called sin and drink, whose name was Fred but he was called in the underworld the spider and he greeted the spider by saying I thought she was dead and Fred said I am the fellow you used to know is dead this is a new one and Larry was puzzled and intrigued and he asked how it happened Fred said did you see that sign across the street he said yes if you come down at 8 o'clock tonight you will find out what changed the spider and that night without any vestige of faith of any kind never having heard of God or Christ as anything except a swear word Larry made a start. He'd been brought up by an atheist who had been kind to him and he wound up in the underworld with no knowledge of religion whatsoever. Now to what did he begin that night to surrender his life? To the God he saw at work in Fred to the God that had changed Fred and might change him. And let me tell you, Fred, pretty nearly 30 years after, is still going strong. Now, AA has never had any of the usual connotations of a rescue mission. But this combination of exposure and experiment of seeing the higher power at work in somebody else and seeking the same experience in one's own life goes on in the lives of all AAs who have no faith whatever to begin with. experimental approach to faith and I think it's a good one there'll come a time when you can't leave it as just an experiment you've got to grow as the Montaigne has been telling us you've gotta go on and think out what has happened and use your mind about it you'll probably be a good deal stronger if you link up as he suggested with some outfit that exists to help people definitely with their religious faith for we need to grow in the spiritual dimension and we certainly don't want to make a church out of AA That would cause trouble. But as a precursor to the church, what St. Paul called the law to the gospel, a tutor, a schoolmaster, to get us ready for the church I think AA stands second to none. But it has been wisdom to keep the church and AA, ordinary religion and AA separate as it has been wisdom in America to keep church and state separate. Doesn't mean they don't work together. It just means neither of them tries to use up the functions of the other. Thank God for the amount of cooperation that there is between the churches and age. Now, this is one thing that I think the churches and all agencies that deal with need for a change in human nature would do well to heed. This experimental approach. We need our scholars who can give us reasonable approaches to these great realities of spiritual faith and life, but I think it's very seldom that mere good reasons or arguments get people much above their trials and temptations and illnesses of body or of soul. It's evidence that does this. It's the sight of somebody who's been healed and changed. Arguments very often confuse and irritate and drive wedges. But the evidence of experience makes clear and draws and unites. There's a verse in the Acts which says, seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. Do it and people are glad you did it. Get into a discussion about how you did or what did it and you'll be separated from them in about five minutes and knock all the bloom off it and somebody's going to get mad. In many places the churches are giving people good arguments. What they ought to be doing, and at best they are doing, is giving people some samples instead. I think this is the thing that AA is doing all around the world. We don't hold up these people as saints in paragons anymore. The church holds up its people as Saints in Paragons. We don' t say, look how good these people are. We say, Look what they used to be and how much progress is being made and come join this fellowship of honesty and of need. If there's ever got to be a league of dry and righteous people, well, I'm not going to finish that sentence because you'd all be drunk with sundown. I've known a good many saints and spiritual leaders in my time And I don't know a single one of them that didn't have clay feet. I don' t mean they were insincere. I don'' t mean there were hypocrites in the ordinary sense. I just mean they we human beings like myself, and human beings sin and fail just as long as they continue to be human beings. That's not a cynical statement. That's only an honesty. That's to get people out of this sky-blue atmosphere they think they get into when they come inside churches. It doesn't exist. all claims to perfection are for the bird but sobriety and mended lives and new relationships are within the grasp of everybody provided we seek and accept the help of God as we understand it I'm going to say something else While we must always allow for some people in AA who continue to say that they don't believe in God in any conventional way I hope there's some people like that here this morning and recognize that they have found sobriety as well as those who do so believe We must speak of how much AA has done to change what we meant when first we may have said God as we understood him For all too many of us God has been a concept only As the Montaigne said, a figure with a long beard and a book in which is being kept a record, usually the unfavorable record. And he's been a figure to frighten us or to call us to task while he sat there in a kind of celestial judgment on the sons of man. That picture of God goes out of the window when you discover him as a power and a force Someone to whom you go when you need the response of understanding and the offer of help that is called grace. We may say this represents the difference between a dogmatic and a dynamic God, between a God who asks of us, or we think he asks of Us, the impossible, and a God Who helps to bring His will within our nearer reach by helping us all the time to draw us closer to it. The whole world, non-Christian as well as Christian, owes an unspeakable debt to Jesus Christ for revealing to us a God who is like himself, loving, patient, forgiving, eager to help, while yet expecting us to live according to his law. But he has provided an important footnote to this none needs to know the reality of this kind of God more than those who have known the ghastly loneliness and terror and desperation of most alcoholics before anything else is suggested about a change and a cure the first impression that people of God ought to give is the impression of what Mayfield called the everlasting mercy now God's expectations of us and they are high are part of the everlasting mercies But when we have disappointed those expectations, as who of us has not, and when we know ourselves to be beyond the reach of any merely human help, the first face of God we need to see is the face of love. Jesus didn't always show that face to the professional religious of his time, but he consistently showed it to the needy and the disreputable, the outsiders and the outcasts, the helpless and the desperate. And eventually, even the unlovely Pharisee recognized that he needed the challenge presented by Christ when he spoke, even in scorn and in judgment, for that was the only thing that would puncture his hard skin and get through to his heart. We've been seeing already that wonderful picture of the prodigal and the Pharisee in the famous story of the Prodigal Son. That bad boy went off and raised Cain in a far country. and the good boy stayed home and behaved himself but with what seething resentment towards his father and when the wastrel came home and the old man had a party for him that good boy was furious and he wouldn't even go in and all he said to his dad was you never even gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends we had a great wit in the Episcopal Church Bishop Johnson of Colorado who was preaching about this one day. And he said, as for any friends that fellow had, a veal cutlet would have done him. But I've always had a kind of a hope that after the prodigal stayed away a while, stayed home a while those two brothers might have gotten to know each other in a new way. I suggest it was a little frosty between them when he got back. But maybe the prodigal learned something about discipline from his brother, and maybe the brother learned something about forgiveness from the prodigo. Truth is, the good brother's heart was almost farther from his father's heart than the prodigos' were, way out in the far country. Good people often need to learn a lot about mercy. There's just one thing that out-and-out sinners can thank God for, and that is for a problem that is too serious to hide. It's a good thing to have learned even the hard way that all of us need continuous repentance and that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves. Not only are the naughty God's problem, even more of God's problem I think are the good. Years ago in New York, an older woman in my parish asked me if I would talk with a young woman alcoholic who was a friend of her granddaughter about drinking. This older woman had belonged to the church since before I was born. I said to her, you're a Christian why don't you talk with her? She said, well you see, I've never had that problem. And I said, neither have I. but I went on to say some things to her about getting tight on impatience and self-will and self righteousness and some other things so that it never has been much of a jump from me to the people that get drunk on gin and whiskey you see she had told God many a time on a Sunday morning that she was a miserable offender but she didn't really feel like it else it wouldn't have been hard for her to talk about any kind of sin with any kind of person on the face of the earth that's what the Christian church is it isn't all the best people in town on parade, it's the people in time that know they need help now if that's the church I belong and you belong and everybody belongs you know the story about the two old Ruys that went into the Episcopal Church one Sunday morning got in just in time to hear the minister say we've left undone the things we ought to have done and done the things we ought not to have done he nudged his friend he says we're in the right place now there's just one answer for any sin and any need on the face of this earth and that lies in the forgiveness of God for the past and the grace of God for the future I take that to be the spiritual angle of AA because it is the spiritual angle for all mankind. I close with a prayer that is said to be the prayer of a long-dead slave. Oh, Lord, I ain't what I ought to be, and I ainít what I want to be and I ain't what I'm going to be. But, oh Lord, I thank you that I ain't what I used to be." as is so frequently expressed in our meetings, thanks to the grace of God and AA. Most of us learn about the grace of God through experience with someone who has known of it and who is able to mediate it to us. The entire movement has come to know of the grace of God as it has been mediated to us, expressed to us in tangible form by our next speaker. I look forward to this opportunity of sharing the meeting because it would give me an opportunity to meet her. And I'm very happy that she has been able to come to the coast and be with us this afternoon so that you may feel and come to know the sweetness of her spirit, the depth of her concern, and the effectiveness of her service to suffering alcoholics. Sister Ignatius. Thank you. and many of my good friends. In fact, I feel Alcoholics Anonymous is part of my family, really. I know that God works in mysterious ways. How little I thought when I entered the council that I would spend my days at least as many of them as I have and caring for alcoholics. But God works in mysterious ways, and certainly his divine power has directed all this, I feel. He can use very weak instruments to carry out his designs. But in our vantage point, as I know Colonel Pound would say, You see many wonderful results. Nothing short of miracles. We are not given to a lot of imaginary things, but certainly God is extremely kind to the alcoholic because if the child tries to hold on to his heart, he'll never refuse to help and give him a grace to use. I feel that it's a privilege to work in this field I owe much to my community when Bill called me about this I certainly could hardly think of appearing on a program like this and as I said well it's something like the AA third step we turn our life and our will over to God under the direction of our superiors. My superiors might have sent word at any time that I would take no more. It came nearly to that point in a few cases, but thank God and the serving prayers of well, I suppose many of the sisters who were interested and our little Dr. Bob and Bill himself. Somehow we let it through. I'll just, Bill asked me to say a few words about how we got started in Athens. I hardly knew myself. I was sent there in 1928 just as a, well, it might be the doctor recommended occupational therapy a change of occupation for a while. I was in the field of music, and as you know, that's rather nerve-wracking. And, uh... They thought that was out of the way. A change might be good for me. So, um... I was sent to St. Thomas, which was just opened in 1928. and it was there I met Dr. Bob we had an open staff the first year because we didn't know the men nor did they know us doctor operated one hospital and the other hospital I didn't know they had a drinking problem in fact I wouldn't have known this had he not told me so because he didn't come to the hospital when he was drinking evidently oh I can recall sometimes his voice was rather reverberating I could I could hear him when he came in the back door he had a decided to I mean New England accent but I somehow I liked him because he was so straightforward those of us working along hospitals know that some doctors make everything an emergency a matter of life or death. I will tell you the exact truth about the case. Say, well, my patients wait a few days, or if they can't, then we know that you take them for what they say. However, the answer was so straightforward that I enjoyed working with him. And one day He looked rather down. We often had little chats. And this morning he came in, he looked rather down. I said, Doctor, what's the trouble this morning? Well, then he told me, he said, well sister. She said, I might as well tell you that I came in contact with a New York broker and he said, have had a drinking problem for a long time and somehow we got together and we've tried to work out something that will help these drunks, she said. Well, he said we've been trying it out. They tried a few rest homes, and he had some in the other hospital. And he said, Sister, would you consider taking one? Well, I hesitated because sometime before, Oh, probably some months before I took a man in who Oh, he looked I didn't know much about this drinking I knew some could drink It seemed some could drink and handle it well and others shouldn't So they called me to the emergency and I went down and talked with him Oh, is this like just lie down a little while He worked at the city garage and looked like a very respectable person. He said, I've been drinking a little too much and I want to get straightened out. Which I thought was a good thing. Well, the only bed that we had at the time was a bed in a four-bedroom. Then we knew nothing about special treatment and I signed into the man on service, on medical service, and registered him, put him to bed And I said, you won't cause any trouble. Oh, no, he'd be amazing. Well, I forgot about him. When I came over early the next morning, the night supervisor was tall, fitter. We all teased her about her big feet. Well, she was standing at the door waiting for me. She said, the next time you take a DT in this place, please stay up all night and run around after him as we have to. Hmm. That wasn't the end of it either. I decided then that's enough. I often felt sorry to see them turned away, but I was not the last word in the hospital. so when doctor proposed my taking a real because I saw the real well you can imagine my misgivings, I said oh dear me I told him about this experience and I said doctor, not only will Ivy put out but I said the patients and everything else, I don't think they want alcoholics he said sister this patient won't give you a bit of trouble because I will I will medicate him, I'll assure you well I had much confidence in him because he never said anything that wasn't so and I'll always say that well very carefully I said well that's what I shall take in them and put him in a two bedroom I thought I was doing pretty well because we were so crowded in those days, and beds were rather pristine. So I took him to this two-bedroom. The doctor, pardon me, the doctor went up and medicated him and everything, and I thought, well, I figured I wouldn't hear much until the next morning anyway if it wasn't for him. So there was a word about it. The doctor then came to the attending office. Thank you. He said, Sister, would you mind putting my patient in a private room? I thought I had done pretty good to put him in a tubette. He said, you know, he said there'd be some men come to visit him and they'd like to talk to him privately. Well, I said I'll do what I can after. After he left, I went up and looked the situation over and right across the hall we had a power room where we used to prepare the patient's flowers. And I thought, well, they can fix their flowers somewhere else for the day and I believe I could click the bed in there. That's what we did. And his visitors came. We kept a close eye on them. I didn't. It was all you. And I said, oh, my, they're respectable-looking men. and they don't know that they ever took a drink. And went along. I thought, now the next time I won't have this trouble and I'll put him in a private room. So the next one that came along, I put in a pilot room. And he, Gene, I didn't know much about these alcoholics. I was not an expert, surely. The Lord picked out a weakling when he picked out me, I know. But, however, I took him down to the room, as I would any patient, and then was taken to the church to the desk to explain to the nurse a little about it. I couldn't tell her too much, but said Dr. Bob would give her the orders. And he went me down after me. Well, he had his short tongue and everything else. I nearly went through the floor because the nurses all looked at him. And I said, you go by sacks and we'll be right down. So the nurse came down with me. And here he was under the bed. Well, I thought this will never work. I don't think this will go at all. I'd better put two together the next time. I didn't want to give up at once. I don' t know just exactly what I did, whether I had someone stay with him or what I did. But I know after that, I put two together and then finally took a four-bedroom. That seemed to go pretty good. One would help the other. usually one or two would be in a few days before they'd be coming out of it pretty well. And so then we took another two bed across the hall. Well, it was hard to say no when they really wanted to do something about it and for that time and then were coming in quite often. So much so that some of the sisters said, Who are these fine-looking men that come in so often and seem so interested in the patient? And I didn't say much at first, but later I said, well, that is AA. I said what is AA? Would you like to know something about it? Well, yes. Well, I'll bring some literature then. That's how I gradually got to know. But, of course, before that, a committee from Alcoholics Anonymous talked with Sister Superior. She was one who'd had a lot of experience in the old days of charity and all. And she knew what we were doing. And she said to these men... She said, well, it's strange. She said when we have them at charity they'd be running around in the halls and giving a lot trouble. But since Dr. Bound is treating them, we don't know that they're in the house. So she said, there's no problem. Five bites, you see. Just go right along. Well, that was wonderful. But that wasn't all. Of course, then later patients complained because they didn't have visitors at any time. If these AAs did, they seemed like such privileged characters. so finally they decided to we had a small accident war it was sort of off from the of the hospital and there we put in a coffee bar and Dr. Bob set up the program I want to tell you that the first opportunity he had he brought Bill over and of course I I couldn't imagine who this wonderful bill was, but I soon learned that God had chosen two great men. But one didn't have the other supplemented, and together they were perfect. I suggest to you, I often say to our boys, had God picked out two great religious leaders, no one would have come near them because the alcoholic doesn't want anything about religion or God, nor do we try to teach religion to them. But they aren't in for very long until they're asking or telling you what experience they've had and what they'd like to do. They know they haven't been living right. And I feel that, as many of our nurses have said, the best set of is peace of mind. If once they can be relieved of their anxieties and worries and treated properly, there should be no trouble. Personally, first Lynn and Dr. Bob set up the program. No televisions, no radios, no newspapers. Only literature pertaining to AA or something that would have a moral... I mean, a building of their morals and things of that kind. says they don't they have all the reading they can take care of and then their visiting too well we went on with that there's so many details I could bring in but I don't want to make it too long because I know many of you will have probably questions that maybe Colonel Towns could answer some of these people do not know much more than I but anyway during doctors time I think we treated it for between four and five thousand and he traded them he came in every day unless he was out of town or something like that and uh without any charge he said that's my foundation apart from those days we didn't have too much either to start with you couldn't mention money very well for how much it would cost because if we just get them sober, there's even a great deal. But that was taken terribly wrong. Thank God. It worked out very well. And they are no problem old many times, whether they have it or don't, we take them in because God certainly provides. And the man who gets their toes is everlastingly grateful. Doctors, as you start to understand, sometimes they make rounds and they come down and say, Sister, let that man go home. He doesn't want this problem. Oh, but Doctor has a big family and he has to set me up. He doesn'T want the problem, Sister. He isn't ready. So he was always right. Many times they'd frighten me almost as if they'd have a heart attack or they would tell me they had a bad heart or something. And I hated to bother Dr. too much. Often I'd call Ann. I think members of this group or any alcoholic should often say a prayer for Ann because she was the best woman there. In her calm, quiet way, she was really an angel. I would call her and say, oh, Ann, I'm so worried about this fellow. She knew most of them from either a reputation or doctor telling about them. And she would get the doctor if it had been too serious, but otherwise she'd say, now don't worry about this. Because they have a, they're allobiologists, in other words. And I learned they were. do anything to promote another drink or treatment at some time so well we take them but once that was doctor's plan too i thought oh my that's kind of strict isn't it but oh i see the wisdom of it because if there is merry-go-round when that temptation comes You know, I think, well, I can get back in there for five or six days. Well, that'll be all right. This is good. She'll take me back. And I'd only encourage them when they're drinking. They know that it's a one-way trip. The sponsors and the internal townships they are, their cooperation is tremendous. Any hospital who tries to just take them in on their own is very foolish because they need this sponsorship. I often say it's something like learning the techniques of golf. You may know all the angles and all the rules, but unless you get out there in the field and do some footwork and practice, you won't be much of a golfer. So we tried, Dr. felt that they could be taken out of their environment at first, it was just five days because people were pretty depleted after the depression and all. financially. And the sooner we got them back to their families, the better. Although many of those first AA's would take them into their own homes and try to help indoctrinate them. They worked in groups. It was marvelous what they did. But however, we certainly have And I found it was very wise, because the sponsor will not bring them until they are ready. And then he screens them carefully and goes over it. We want to be sure the sponsor is not just a person they met in a bar somewhere. But one, I usually ask them what groups they're attending for. now I know most of them well, know who are the sponsors and who are not. But it's a tremendous help. So finally we um uh the time changed well as Anne of course died in 49 And that was very hard for doctors. Because in the Cleveland Air Force, they had just gotten in from Texas and the plane was grounded. Bill knows more about this than I. Anyway, they brought her directly to the hospital and we kept Dr. there too because he was pretty well shaken up with all this and died of pneumonia and all that. So went on from there. The doctor then died in 1950, a year and a half later. He knew then, I believe, that he had a malignancy. He talked with Bill, well, I think that several times a week, if not every other day, he'd give me a little message. And I felt as though I knew Bill and his guiding spirit too because there wasn't very much done that they didn't consult together on, especially anything affecting the foundation of this. Then one day I got worried. We're just like people in the Army, you know, we go to where we're sent. I often wondered whether I was off the mailing list or whether I had forgotten. I was there 24 years, probably one week short of 24 years. And finally the obedience came. And I was to go to charity and work with AA there. They had had AA as charity and fine workers there, but they just had a small department. And Sister Victorine, a very fine sister who everybody loved, was there too. And she came down and we told her everything and Dr. Bob talked with her. And she really did a good job. but they decided to build a new wing and all the extra oh I know they thought Alcoholics Anonymous was a thrill then or not but everything was discontinued it wasn't absolutely a case of life or death so they just kind of forgot about AA but Reverend Mother didn't see so much good in it, I know I went there in August and I didn't hear a word about, other than on my obedience to Stead that I would take care of this floor and visit his patients and work with AA. Well, I mean, someday maybe we'd have him. But anyway, I just observed and went along day by day. Finally one day I got a call of the surgery checking on the patient's disease and find out the condition. Family were worried about this patient, and the bell rang furiously and said, Superior wants to see you on your floor. And I came down, and the architect of the new building was there, and a few nurses, the director of our nursing service was there. And of course, Superior said, what kind of a setup would you like for this AA? Well, you can imagine standing in the middle of the floor and feeling rather strange. I didn't know whether to call myself or not just yet. And I couldn't think very fast. So this nurse said, well, sister, are they violent? I said, no, they're not violent. Oh, they aren't intoxicated. Yes, they are intoxicated, but they're clear enough to be screened because we must make sure that they want the person. Well, she said to the architect, you won't need those cages then. Well, I said... I said to Mr. Rocklin, would you mind giving me a few days and we'll drop a little plan of what we'd like? Fine. Well, the day that they came was on the feet of our Lady of the Rosary. That's how we called it, Rosary Hall. and there is connected with that when I was moved there I thought oh I'd love to have this in memory of Dr. Bob well I thought if I just finish it rather than call it the alcoholic ward we'll call it Rosary Hall and it's simply marking there Rose R.H well I thought all I needed was a nest and I had Dr. Smith so I called it Robert Holder Smith So we call it Rosary Hall Salary. The insignia on the door is RHS, permission to open the wall was granted by the hospital authorities on October 7th, 1952. These are the most older rosaries. I feel that to people whether they're in the church or out of whatever the denomination when you see a rosary you know it means prayer people get their rosary out well you think they're praying somehow so to everyone I think this is all a result of someone's prayer the grace of God comes through someone's prayers and penance that's for sure well anyway it was therefore named Rosary Hall salarium. Well, I told you about that. The insignia eloquently expresses the effort of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, a Catholic religious order, as they joined forces with the members of AA, a strictly non-sectarian movement, in an attempt to rescue men and women of all creeds from the bottomless pit of alcoholism. To be admitted to this award you must be sponsored by a number of AA in good standing. You must also evidence your desire not just to get sober, but also preserve and perpetuate your sobriety on a day-by-day basis. Unless you yourself are willing to admit that you are an alcoholic, you are advised to seek help elsewhere. The physical therapy is most modern known to medical clients. The patient's entire stay is a retirement from the outside world, and the habits which have caused his collapse. There are no radios, televisions, newspapers, or magazines. Nothing but AA literature and other literature in keeping with the programs are available. The patient may have no visitors except members of Alcoholics Anonymous who are welcome between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., The conversation concerns alcoholism and its ravaging problems. Every evening, a member of AA comes to the hospital to conduct a brief AA meeting for the patients in a track of quantified stands in the center of the hall where AA members and the patients often gather to discuss their common problems. A little oratory is open at all times just if they want to do some careful thinking there. There. The remodeling and construction work for the solarium was done by members of AA who contributed their time and money. Members who belong to building trades worked day and night during these spare hours to complete the public quarters at no cost to the hospital. rosary hall accepted its first patient one year ago and since that date 1,000 men and women have been hospitalized therein we haven't much room for women we're helping get more oh we have three we as usually we have two sometimes four and even a stretch to five but that isn't good. However, Rosy Hall accepted his first patient one year ago and since that date, well, pardon me for giving, they have been offered not only the key to sobriety but also the key of a happy sobriete. The sisters of Carrie and the members of Alcoholics Anonymous who had assisted them declined any individual credit. They are aware that it is in giving we receive. Well, God bless you all and I wish you a contented, happy sobriety and may God's grace be with you always and bless every one of you. Thank you.