Old Rucker sits down with Jeremy and Cherie, a married couple who survived alcoholism, military service, and near destruction to become examples of resilience and partnership in sobriety. They recount meeting as teens, marrying young, and enduring years of alcohol abuse that led to emotional distance, isolation, and even violent incidents including one involving their dog that became a turning point toward recovery. Jeremy’s military career and PTSD intersected with their drinking, while Cherie’s feelings of unworthiness and identity loss as a mother fueled her own addiction. They describe hitting rock bottom, entering detox within hours of each other, and navigating the painful early months of sobriety marked by codependency, conflict, and relearning how to live and love without alcohol. Through honest reflection, humor, and faith, they show how working separate recovery programs ultimately rebuilt their marriage, transforming chaos into a disciplined, compassionate partnership grounded in shared growth and service to others in recovery.

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Thought to Consider . . .

What I am is God’s gift to me. What I make of myself is my gift to Him.

God seldom becomes a reality until God becomes a necessity.

The solution is simple. The solution is spiritual.

True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith . . .

AACRONYMS

S T E P S = Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety

“Great suffering and great love are A.A.’s disciplinarians; we need no others.”

“. . . the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.”

Not until you have failed can you learn true humility. Humility arises from a deep sense of gratitude to God for giving you the strength to rise above past failures. Humility is not inconsistent with self-respect. The true person has self-respect and the respect of others and yet is humble. The humble person is tolerant of others’ failings and does not have a critical attitude toward the weakness of others. Humble people are hard on themselves and easy on others.

“Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.”

The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.

Touchy

“Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things make us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will prejudiced for as long as some of us were.”

“Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action.”

Dianne