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I am Grateful for Recovery

December 27, 2011 at 9:00 AM ET by Tom
Summary: 
A father shares the story of son's addiction and the accident that led him to create Aaron's House, which encourages sobriety through peer support.

Cross-posted from Faces and Voices of Recovery

My son Aaron was 17 when he said "Dad, I don't care where you go or what you do, but you gotta do something about you 'cause your killin' Mom." Aaron was in recovery and I had just decided to start attending Alanon. I went directly to the place where I was told I'd find an Alanon meeting. The sign in the entry way pointed UP to Alanon, and an arrow down to AA. I stood at the landing and walked down to AA.  

Four and a half months later Aaron died in a car crash while on his way to drive a fellow in recovery to a job interview. Aaron's plan for his recovery was to move into a house with friends in recovery, get a job, go to school, and build on recovery with peer support. We took his idea and opened www.AaronsHouseMadison.org in August 2007. The fifth year begins this August and so far 14 young men ages 18-26 have lived at Aaron's House, gone to school, held jobs, and built on their sobriety through peer support.

I am grateful for recovery.

This post is part of the ONDCP Stories of Hope blog series.