Testimonial

 I am Charlie Nelson and I thank my Higher Power for the opportunity to pen this letter. I will share my story as the program asks: how it used to be, what happened, and what it’s like now.            For most of my life I have felt less than everyone else. I was either too slow, too boring, too weak or too afraid. Or, I wasn’t satisfied with anything good in my life—I always wanted more, or something a little better, or to be somewhere else.  Slowly I indulged in alcohol and drugs—more and more. First to run from these feelings—and then, from life itself.            Eventually the drugs destroyed everything in my life: my career, my finances, my relationship with my wife and kids, my hope, and finally my desire to live. All the while, the drugs told me “everything is going to be okay– you just need one more blast, baby, and life will be off the hook. Tomorrow we will fix everything even better than before.“            Well, that day never came—only despair, homelessness and finally hopes for death.            Then came the day I sat at the end of a bed in a motel room. No drugs, no money, not one person to even call. It was the loneliest place in the world. I got on my knees and prayed for a solution as the hotel manager was pounding on the door yelling, “you have to leave—checkout was eight hours ago.” I went to my truck and thought I could sit here and weep until I die or I could surrender and find a new, better life.               Shortly afterward, I ended up at Joe & Shirley’s Place. At first it was a place that was safe. A place where playmates and playgrounds were not allowed—with a zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol. This got me through my first few months. Then it became so much more...a place where I started to build a new life and a new foundation without drugs or alcohol. A place to grow and mature, where my shortcomings are accepted in an atmosphere of guidance until the day I find peace and let my shortcomings go. A place where I could learn to trust and have faith in a Higher Power and in myself. Faith that I can do things differently, no matter what my mind tells me. A place that is now my home where I am learning to love myself.

Charlie Nelson 

 Charlie is a member of our Community Relations Committee and is fast becoming our Webmaster!   

The following is an excerpt from an email Charlie recently sent to Dave Beatty.

The kids and I had another great weekend. I'm really starting to see how illusion has played a big part in my life. I really feel foolish and extremely ignorant to spend so much time chasing things that were not real. All the while I was blessed with an incredible reality.  I am so grateful to have seen so many clichés around the tables hit me right in the kisser...and know exactly what they mean. I don't know why God picked me to make it to the tables, I'm not going to question it at all. I want to just run with it and enjoy it.  I can not express how much you have helped me. It seems like it was a  different time, a different place, even a different world when we sat over at Grady's place and shared a cup or two of coffee. Since that day you have taught me about illusion, humility, and trust. All the things I needed for the tables and especially my sponsors to be able to help me get this far.  The coolest part about this whole thing is not how I may be different. But the difference it has had in my kids lives. For the last eleven months they have had a father.  I look forward to the future.

 Loving Regards, Charlie