My Life in a Bottle

By Timothy Spears

fter a four-day weekend bender, I finally hit bottom on a Sunday morning. I woke up that morning so sick that I thought every nerve was trying to crawl though my skin. I had the shakes and DT's so bad that I needed to do one of two things, kill myself or get professional help. A tough decision. I had the Irish gene, my mother died of scirosis when she was fifty. Seven of us kids made for a very dysfunctional household with two parents who were drunk most of the time growing up. 
The year was 1988, and I had been dringing since I was about 13 years old. So about 36 years of putting it away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Timothy Spears
• Release date: Jun 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224431052

Book preview

A black text with a white background Description automatically generated

2024 Timothy Spears

All rights reserved

M

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: The early Days

Chapter 2: Overcoming Challenges

Chapter 3: Building a Support System

Chapter 4: Celebrating Milestones

Chapter 5: Embracing a Sober Lifestyle

Chapter 6: Sharing Stories of Hope

Chapter 7: Staying Committed to Sobriety

Chapter 1: The early Days

The first time I ever got drunk I was 11 years old. I was living in a Catholic orphanage at the time because our family had split up due to the alcoholism. I was in the orphanage from the age of 10 to 14. One of my best buddies, Jamie and I used to sneak across the street to the shopping center and steal bottles of wine. I still remember the brand, Richards wild Irish Rose. We would steal pint bottles because that's the only thing we could fit down our pants and cover with our shirt. I was also an altar boy at the time and used to steal wine from the priest In the Chapel. Even back then, I remember really liking the feeling of being drunk. All seven of us kids in the family went to the orphanage except my older brother Mike because he was too old, he was fourteen and he went and stayed with our next-door neighbor. All my brothers and sisters eventually ended up in foster homes except my brother John and me. We stayed in the orphanage for the full four years. I guess nobody wanted us.

We had to leave at the age of fourteen, fortunately our family had finally got back together and then we were home again. I was 10 years old when I was put in the orphanage. We were taken from the house and put in the orphanage because we didn't have any parents at home.

My mother was in the state hospital from drinking and my father was sailing on a ship in Africa, so we had no parents at home. My oldest brother Mike was fourteen and he was taking care of all of us. My dad was mailing letters home with cash in them from the ship and Mike was taking care of everything. He paid the bills; he paid for the gas, the electricity, he bought the groceries, he paid the rent.

Not one of the neighbors even knew that our parents weren't there and that we were all taking care of ourselves. Yeah, we were just seven kids taking care of ourselves, the oldest one, my brother Mike was fourteen and Eileen was maybe four or five I don't remember now, she was the youngest.

We were going to a Catholic school every day doing our homework And just living life like normal people going out to play after school, taking our laundry down the street and washing them in ten cent machines. doing everything, we were supposed to do. One day my oldest sister decided to play hooky so the school sent a truant officer out to see a parent. When they showed up of course we couldn't produce a parent and they wanted to know where they were. Mike told them my dad was on a ship in Africa and our mother was in the hospital.