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I'm Brenda Watson. I'm an alcoholic.

And I want to thank Kim for asking me to do this. It's a privilege.

And as soon as I stop hyperventilating, I'll start talking.

And it's exciting for me to be in front of my home group and to be, to see where I came from

and where I'm at today. You know, I came through the doors of Alcoholics and Onus December 14th from 1986,

and I didn't come here because I wanted to, because I liked it.

I came here, as Vince likes to say, because I was beaten.

I was surrender.

I was done.

I didn't know where else to do.

And I knew that you came here to stop drinking, you know, and

it was, I was willing to turn myself to this gray people with gray hair and thin lips, because

that's what they look like to me, you know. But I'll tell you a little bit what it used to be like.

I used to drink and I love to drink. And I said it Saturday night, you know, but I'll tell you a little bit what it used to be like. I used to drink,

and I love to drink. And I said it Saturday night, you know, my favorite drink was a tall

can of English 800. You know, nothing put me right there, and you know where right there is,

like a tall can of beer of English 800 in particular. But unfortunately that's not the only thing I did, you know.

In the days that I started drinking, I was 17 and a half, 18.

I had just arrived in the United States,

...