On a late Sunday afternoon in November, almost a decade ago, 57 year old David “Gator” Wood, a Vietnam War veteran, bought a bottle of vodka, brought it back to his mobile home parked behind the Salem Country Store in Benton, Arkansas and loaded his .357 magnum.
He hadn’t had a drink in 17 years, but on that Sunday, totally alone and without hope, he didn’t think he could deal with the physical and emotional pain in his life any longer.
With the bottle, as yet unopened, and the gun by his side, Gator switched on the TV for the 10 o’clock news on channel 11 in time to see a segment, narrated by anchorwoman, Anne Jansen, on alcoholism and recovery. It included an interview with me, a recovering alcoholic and founder of One Day at a Time.
My message
My message to the audience was that if I could recover anyone could and furthermore that living sober is a lot more fun than living drunk.
For Gator it was an epiphany. He poured out the vodka, unloaded the gun, looked me up in the phone book, and called me at my Little Rock home at 10:30 p.m. When I picked up, he said, “you saved my life.”
The next day, at a Benton coffee shop, we sat and talked for two hours about his life and the possibility of a new and exciting future. We had both been in the service and both of has been addicted to alcohol. In the following days, he moved out of the mobile home, got a job and began attending 12-step meetings and reconnecting in other ways.
Several years later, Gator moved to Florida, and we lost track of one another, but as far as I know, he has remained sober.
Gator affected me, as much as I affected him, and I will be forever grateful for it.
Pat Summerall’s influence
Another influence on me was an interview I had with the late Pat Summerall at his home in Dallas shortly before his death in April, 2013. He had been sober more than 20 years. We covered a lot of ground, but I was especially interested in his years with the New York (football) Giants (I’m a 60 year fan), and his friendship with the late New York Yankee’s, Mickey Mantel.
Summerall left Betty Ford in 1992 and never had another drink, and he began to turn his attention to helping others, including his old friend and drinking buddy, legendary New York Yankee baseball player, Mickey Mantle.
Shortly after Summerall got out of Betty Ford, Mantle pressed him for details on the experience.
“Are they big into religion out there?” he asked.
“Well, yeah—it’s part of it.” Summerall answered
When Summerall asked him about what denomination he was, Mantle had no idea what that meant with the explanation that “I ain’t never been to church.”
“Being from Oklahoma,” Summerall said, “you probably are a Baptist. “.
To which Mantle replied, “That’ll be fine. I’ll take that.”
In December 1993 Mantle checked in to Betty Ford.
A year later, Mantle was diagnosed with liver cancer and shortly after received a transplant which failed. On August 13, 1995 Mantle died at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Summerall mourned the loss, but he says, “I was glad for one thing that happened to Mickey after he became sober. Despite his lack of experience with organized religion, Mickey found faith. The things he heard at the Betty Ford Center and from visits from his old Yankee teammate Bobby Richardson led him to God.
Sobering realities
As we reflect on these personal stories of redemption it is also beneficial to reflect on these sobering realities:
- One quarter of all emergency room admissions, one-third of all suicides, and more than half of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol related.
- In the top three causes of death–heart disease, cancer and stroke–alcohol is implicated, and almost all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related.
- About half the people who die in fires have blood alcohol levels indicating intoxication.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation.
- Use of alcohol and other drugs is associated with the leading causes of death and injury (e.g., motor-vehicle crashes, homicides, and suicides) among teenagers and young adults.
- Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.
- Shortfalls in productivity and employment among individuals with alcohol or other drug-related problems cost the American economy billions of dollars.
- Employees who were in serious trouble with alcohol showed significant improvement in drinking behavior and job adjustment during the months immediately following an intervention to confront problem drinking that was intruding on their work.
- Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal and up to 16 times greater among all employees with alcohol and other drug-related problems.
- Drug-using employees take three times as many sick benefits as other workers. They are five times more likely to file a worker’s compensation claim.
- Non-alcoholic members of alcoholics’ families use ten times as much sick leave as members of families in which alcoholism is not present.
- For every dollar they invest in an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), employers generally save anywhere from $5 to $16. The average annual cost for an EAP ranges from $12 to $20 per employee.
- Research indicates that alcoholism treatment can yield significant reductions in total health care costs and utilization for an alcoholic and his or her family.
Source: National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
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