Podathon For Recovery: Evie’s Road to Recovery

Rich & Wendy 0:00
Welcome to a special episode of Conversations With Rich Bennett. This is a part of our part of our point for recovery. 12 days of hope; our mission to raise money for rage against addiction. My co-host Wendy Beck and I will be sharing powerful stories of addiction, recovery, and resilience to help break the stigma and show that hope is always possible. Your Your support helps rage against addiction provide life-changing resources, and you can donate right now by visiting our GoFundMe link in the show news. We are so grateful you've joined us on this important journey. Now let's get into today's conversation. 

Rich Bennett 0:38
Hey, doing Evie. 

Wendy Beck 0:40
Hi Evie. 

Evie 0:41
Thank you for hi, Wendy. 

Wendy Beck 0:43
Nice to meet you. 

Rich Bennett 0:45
When we talked online, and Craig, we have a wrong, you said 44 years, 

Evie 0:51
Yes, 

Rich Bennett 0:51
right? 

Evie 0:52
44 years. 31st of March, it was 44 years of clean and sober, not a drop of alcohol, not even fuck. Remedies, I don't know if you're familiar to German, Remedies, they worked for anxiety and sleep, but those are just flowers basically, but they are in alcohol, so I never touched them. Even everybody over there has the fucking Remedies in there. 

Rich Bennett 1:34
Actually, how old were you when the addiction started? 

Evie 1:37
I will say the addiction started when I was born. I think there is a greatest 

timeed condition. What happened to my family was horrible. My grandmother died in Auschwitz. My mother was hidden for six years. My grandmother was very lucky because she was a very, very good seamstress. Today, we would say she was a fashion designer and she worked for the opera singers, who were very pasta at the 

Rich Bennett 2:18
end. 

Evie 2:19
And so she made them their street girls and their evening girls, not nothing for the stage 

Rich Bennett 2:26
know. 

Evie 2:26
just, you 

Rich Bennett 2:26
For 

Evie 2:27
life. And so they needed her, and so grandmother still worked very hidden, but still she was not in danger to be deported, but my mother was. And my father was in the resistance and there was a whole group that protected basically my mother and my grandmother. 

Rich Bennett 2:54
Wow. 

Evie 2:55
after the war, anti-Semitism in Austria is still 

Rich Bennett 3:03
here, 

Evie 3:03
as it is here. 

It's a topic. But as a child, I felt very much ostracized. 

Rich Bennett 3:15
And 

Evie 3:19
I was an only child, and my parents worked, I was a Lachkick child, and I've warmed the soup under stove, thirty-eighths or five and a half years. 

Rich Bennett 3:32
Wow! 

Evie 3:33
Yeah, I was totally independent, and my parents thought this was normal. It was normal because when was seven, I peed in my pants all 

Rich Bennett 3:45
the time. Wow. 

Evie 3:48
Of stress. And I think this is when it started. I bought other kids' bought candies, I bought a dime at the and I bought cigarettes. I smoked in the... 

Rich Bennett 4:07
At seven? 

Evie 4:08
At eight, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:09
Oh, I ate wow. 

Evie 4:10
Yeah, and you know that was a solace for me, and I was always rebellious. I was a child, but it was very, very good and very smart, good, good student, very smart. So I got divorce a lot, and I chewed it, chewed it, left and right, made money. 

Rich Bennett 4:36
How old were you when you were tutoring? 

Evie 4:39
What do you mean? 

Rich Bennett 4:40
Wow. 

Evie 4:40
Wow. And I always had love patients, so what I earned then went into shoes, and a purse is... a habit I still have. 

And then I married very young. My high school sweetheart, and he was also 

genetically challenged. He was an alcoholic, he was a juvenile I'll auto-hollow it. 

Rich Bennett 5:15
Oof. 

Evie 5:15
I mean that's... Uhm, how about that, uh, and I became an Allen-on, I became very, very cool dependent, uh, what's him be their best, in the attic, I covered up for him all the time, and I thought he has a problem, well, really true. And we got divorced when we both were 27 and then I started my own journey into alcohol, but it was not as severe at the time, I did not think I had a problem, I was just, I liked to be a little bit on the lighter side, let's see, a little dissue. But in 1973 I had a car accident, a severe car accident, and I had PTSD, nobody knew that, that was something like a PDF, at the time, especially not in Austria, and that was the time 74, 75, 76 when the psychopharmacar came on the market, it was not just volume or a pro-zac, there were other fields, and I became a guinea pig. The psychiatrist who worked with me had always a new candy, and I tried it, you know, and then it didn't work, and then I mixed it with alcohol. I 

still worked, and actually I was very successful, which I, to this day, knew everything, how the drugs and the alcohol did not knock me out, 

Rich Bennett 6:57
right, 

Evie 6:59
I was functioning, I'm happy, and 

I smoked a lot, 

Rich Bennett 7:10
I... 

Evie 7:11
and 

Rich Bennett 7:11
Time of cigarette still, right? 

Evie 7:12
Yeah, the cigarette. 

Rich Bennett 7:13
Okay, yeah, 

Evie 7:14
I never had married one of that, it didn't interest me, and I never did a streetwork job. 

Rich Bennett 7:20
right. 

Evie 7:20
Even though it's not as available in Austria, we were here, but those, those were the script and the drugs they were enough, you know? 

Rich Bennett 7:33
And those prescription drugs and alcohol, a lot of times for a lot of people who have led to the hardest things. 

Evie 7:41
It did not, nothing. 

Rich Bennett 7:42
Yeah, for you, it didn't, which is good. Yeah. 

Evie 7:45
And then in, 

I think it was in summer 

AED, 

Rich Bennett 7:58
of 

Evie 7:58
I was in Israel, and when in Israel I was really miserable, didn't have my drugs, and it's also a sick. 

Rich Bennett 8:08
And 

Evie 8:10
then I came back to Vienna, 

I had a feeling, I had to stop. I didn't know what. So I went to an acupuncturist and we went to the trauma of my car accident, and he relived some of the trauma, his hypnosis. And I said, 

Rich Bennett 8:35
"Wow! Oh! 

Evie 8:36
Great. This is really great." 

Wendy Beck 8:37
Did you, can I ask a question? Did you know that you were addicted, or did you have any idea that was what was going on? 

Evie 8:46
And in 1980, when I came back from Israel, a book fell into my hands, you know. It was like co-incidence. And it was written by a German journalist who was married to an alcoholic, and she described her journey as the wife of an alcoholic, the coloring up, and I had two more boyfriends after my divorce, who were also. So I did not get out of... 

Rich Bennett 9:18
You couldn't get away from it. 

Evie 9:20
No. And she was talking about a different disease. I will never forget the different disease. 

Rich Bennett 9:32
Hmm. 

Evie 9:33
Yeah. I might have this disease. So it was not clear, you know, that was not the time when every other article in the newspaper and the wellness magazine was about fiction, it was not. 

Rich Bennett 9:50
Right. 

Evie 9:51
So this book was really my portal into recovery. And 

this last boy friend, number three, 

and I had a huge obligation. It was terrible. Police came. And this has... It was in the paper because I was a well known activist, one of the gossip columns and stuff. I knew this is not me. Yeah, there is a liver life that is not my life. 

So 

we decided we were talking after that incident when we were sober again. He said, "We are alcoholics". 

A few days before that. I had this baby truly taken me. That was a...march 12s. I was waiting for him at night. I was standing at the window and I looked out. It was snowing. March 12s...time at the snows in Indiana. And, uh, a voice told me, 

'If you don't stop what you're doing', you will not live longer than six months'. And this voice was not me. Because I would have said half a year. It was not my addiction to say six months. And I became very quiet. I went to bed and didn't take a pill, nothing was left. And, next morning, he didn't come home. Next morning, I grabbed the newspaper and over there, it is customary that you look at the weather report every day because the weather changes, you know, it can change 

Rich Bennett 12:01
day. 

Evie 12:01
in 

Rich Bennett 12:01
Yeah, like 

Evie 12:01
a 

Rich Bennett 12:01
here. 

Evie 12:02
Yeah, no, not in Los Angeles. (laughs) (laughs) Well, you are probably. So, I looked at the weather report and underneath the weather report was and it was a little bit. It said alcohol, it's anonymous. And listed the meetings, at the times, at the addresses. Then looked at me, and said, 'This is who I am. I'm not an outsider. I am an alcoholic.' And then, Thomas came at one point and I said, 'I want to go to an AA meeting.' It was the third item of March. The fourth was a Saturday. And he said, 'I go first. I check it out.' And then you can go, or we can go together. Okay, check it out. There's another one on Sunday, so I can go in. So, he came home with the pick book of alcoholics anonymous and he said, 'Yes, we are alcoholics.' That's here. 

Rich Bennett 13:06
Wow! 

Evie 13:09
So, next day, I went to a different meeting. There was an old man in my view. He was about 60, and a drunk, you know, his show, as we call them, like a homeless person. On his luck. And he was sleeping, he was so annoying. And I was talking, talking, talking, talking. And the man at the end said, 'Listen, don't know if your boyfriend told you, but we are only men.' They are no women. 

Rich Bennett 13:41
Oh, wow. 

Wendy Beck 13:42
Oh, that's interesting. 

Evie 13:45
And he said, 'You cannot come, are you? You can't go without, this is not possible.' You have to go to Allenville. 

He did not know that I would stay at the Illinois Group, because they became so co-dependent with me. Everybody wanted to rescue me. They picked me up. They told me they came home. They picked cookies for me. They did everything so I would stay sober. And they totally forgot why they were there. They called for me. I had checked this pool girl of nice women, really nice, but I played them like a little S alcoholics too. there's no difference between alcoholics, women or alcoholic men. Alcoholics, especially in society was the longest thing I was missing. They manipulated people. They 

Rich Bennett 14:50
And 

Evie 14:50
are the masters. Most of us are charming, smart, and we walk in a room and we know this one, this one, this one and this one. We'll fall for my shannigans. So this whole Allenville Group did him and then the wife of the guy who was kind of running to show. She said, "It's enough you go to AA or you start drinking again. We have enough of you." Okay, I went to AA. And that was good because I didn't know men. I was in an old girl's school. 

Rich Bennett 15:33
Right. 

Evie 15:34
It wasn't another parallel school with boys. And it's not like about that. 

Rich Bennett 15:47
Were 

Wendy Beck 15:49
there women's meetings at that time? 

Evie 15:53
In Austria, in Vienna at the time, there were two groups. The one that I went first was in church and there were never more than three people. 

Rich Bennett 16:08
Oh 

Evie 16:08
Four. 

Rich Bennett 16:08
wow. 

Evie 16:09
And the other one was bigger than men. And then there was an international meeting where all the expats went. There was an English and I went to that meeting also. That was more sophisticated than the Austro-American. Because 

Rich Bennett 16:28
were 

Evie 16:29
they 

Rich Bennett 16:29
national 

Evie 16:30
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 16:30
ones? 

Evie 16:30
they were all Americans and they got sober in America. They had jobs. Usually they were singers. We have many opera houses and opera singers came in. That's show business people mainly. And Americans got sober in AA wherever. 

Rich Bennett 16:49
Right. 

Evie 16:50
I was in New York. And they were sophisticated and I thought I'd fit right in. 

But also I'm Austrian. I was called back to the Austro-American. 

I stayed sober, which was really 

an accomplishment. And I got a scholarship to study at the List zadsberg Institute in Los Angeles for six months. I got it from 

Rich Bennett 17:26
Austro-American. 

Evie 17:26
the 

Rich Bennett 17:27
Wow! 

Evie 17:27
Austrian Ministry of Education. And I said I have to go because I have to go to AA meetings. 

Rich Bennett 17:36
Right. 

Evie 17:38
And fortunately, I arrived on July 1st, '82 

and I immediately went to AA meetings and they didn't take long that I stayed in the sober living house. 

It was good. It was very 

Rich Bennett 18:00
good. Yeah. 

Evie 18:00
very Went to meetings every day, women's stacks mainly. And 

then also to speakers meetings and then slowly 

got into mixed meetings. It was a heart for me because there was a sex addict underneath. 

Rich Bennett 18:30
Wait, how many different addictions did you have, Evie? 

Evie 18:34
I had an addiction to prescription drugs and definitively to sex. 

Rich Bennett 18:41
Wow! 

Evie 18:42
Definitely. 

Rich Bennett 18:43
All right. So we know for, okay you have NA and AA. 

Evie 18:49
Only AA, NA, I did not qualify. Went to NA meetings to where I was in economics and I could not. 

Rich Bennett 18:55
Art, but where do you go for sex addiction? 

Evie 18:58
Oh, there is, for women, it's sex and love addiction. But I'm 

Rich Bennett 19:04
Really? 

Evie 19:04
not addicted to love. So I left that group and I said, okay, I go to the sex addict meetings and we were, again, maybe two or three women there in the rest of the man. And it was such a sobering experience as it was already in Vienna. I got a glimpse about men in my early society. Then I forgot about it. But then I was in the sex meetings. I really got to know men. I like men, but I'm not addicted to men anymore. I got off the street years, I was the treasurer of the meeting. I was there for a while and I got to speakers. I was very involved in sex addicts and anomalous. And I'm very grateful for this meeting, for this program. Because after three years, 

I knew I would never fall for an alcoholic, but never fall. For a sick relationship. And I understand men very well, but I don't fall for them. 

So I have been without a relationship in surgery for 40 years. 

Wendy Beck 20:30
Oh, so you've been in the same relationship for 40 years. Is that what you said? 

Evie 20:35
No. 

Wendy Beck 20:36
Oh. 

Evie 20:36
The relationship is with me. 

Wendy Beck 20:38
Oh, 

Evie 20:39
I 

Wendy Beck 20:39
yes. 

Evie 20:40
have not had the relationship with a man. 

Wendy Beck 20:42
That's beautiful. So did your recovery journey, did that bring you to some of the things that you do in your profession now? Because you do a lot of therapeutic type of things? Yes. And how has it? 

Evie 20:56
I knew. 

Wendy Beck 20:57
How has it changed from then till Like your journey in helping people? 

Evie 21:06
Yeah. I sponsored, I went back only to A in meetings after my adventures as a sex addicts and anomalous, and then I sponsored many many many. Over the years, I was a journalist. I got a very good shop as an Austrian publishing house. I interviewed everybody and anybody. I interviewed 

the guy who died. Not who was on France. 

Rich Bennett 21:42
Oh, Matthew 

Evie 21:45
Perry? Yes, 

Wendy Beck 21:45
Perry. 

Evie 21:45
Matthew At Interview, many times, and we talked about AA, we talked about recovery. We had all these deep, deep conversations, and I never thought he would go back again. I thought he would stay sober. But, but did I know it? Uhm, anyway. 

Rich Bennett 22:07
Wow. 

Evie 22:08
The, the job was, was very consuming. I had to write an article every day. I wrote for six magazines. But, uhm, I always had time for helping people. And then I, I was guided to USM, University of Santa Monica, for this spiritual psychology program, and graduated from there. Uh, that was very good. In 2014, I started my practice as a light coach, as an hypnotist therapist. And more and more, I would say, my specialty, and what I'm doing best, is helping people, men 

Rich Bennett 22:56
or women. 

Evie 22:58
Uh, was, um, sexual dysfunctions, and what I also have specialized is, was very, very heavy people. 250+ to 400 pounds. And, 

Rich Bennett 23:12
I used to be in that category. 

Wow. Wait, why is not any more, though. 

Evie 23:18
I know it's a, and that especially with women, there was a study at the Skyser that 90% of these women, that sexually 

Rich Bennett 23:32
abused. Oh, geez. 

Evie 23:33
In, in that chart. And so this is my specialty. I'm not, uh, it takes a while until they open up. 

Rich Bennett 23:41
Yeah. 

Evie 23:43
But, uh, once they open up, and the water can, the whole thing up, we have really a chance of the recovery of using the weight. 

And can, we be, we just wanted to paint. 

Rich Bennett 24:00
And I guess in a way, a lot of that goes hand in hand with, because you're helping them with weight loss, the sexual dysfunction, anxiety, depression, I guess, and it all can lead back to addiction. 

Evie 24:16
Or abuse, uh, you know, 

Rich Bennett 24:18
or abuse, yeah. 

Evie 24:19
I had one client, also, he'd lost 60 pounds with me. That was the other way around. It was a boy as a child. And, uh, he'd pull it, kids, and, and, and he'd, uh, 

Rich Bennett 24:35
I'd, uh, and he, um, 

Evie 24:36
and he lived with guilt over that. 

Rich Bennett 24:42
Wow. 

Evie 24:42
And can go, can go in different directions. 

Rich Bennett 24:47
All right. I always like to ask this question because now, I mean, you've turned everything around to where you're helping others. Can you share a feel good story of somebody that you've actually helped out? That was in addiction? 

Evie 25:04
Well, 

Rich Bennett 25:06
and I know there's several, 

Evie 25:08
but so many, uh, I, I, they call it in an in an skimo and I 

write myself to be an skimo. 

Rich Bennett 25:20
Okay. 

Evie 25:21
It takes a lot of sensibility. You cannot walk up to somebody who has a drinking problem and you'll see it. 

Rich Bennett 25:30
And 

Evie 25:32
say, hey, I'm going to an A meeting. You want to come with me? 

Rich Bennett 25:38
Right. 

Evie 25:41
You have to be very careful. You have to get to know the person. Not, not as a client, but as a, as a person, I would not go that far that I befriended everybody, but I, I 

Rich Bennett 25:59
right 

Evie 26:00
try to, uh, be honest with them. Doesn't mean that I have to tell the story everybody that's not necessary, but they need to feel for me that, uh, I come from my heart, you know, not from, from any agenda. 

And at one point, I can say, you know, a, o, o, a, o, sex addict, maybe be a good, good program for you. And I take you there. So I take them as if it was them. And if, if they are men, I find immediately a sponsor for them. And then I say goodbye. 

Rich Bennett 26:47
But that's, the good thing is and you mentioned something right there with you. It's coming from your heart when you're helping these people. And, and that's important because we know there are some people out there that it's not really coming from their heart. Some of them are doing it for the money or whatever. but when it's coming from your heart it makes a huge difference. 

Wendy Beck 27:10
curious about how the recovery I guess movement is today versus how it was when you started and how can you see that in like the people that the women that you sponsor 

Evie 27:23
of 

Wendy Beck 27:23
and that type There's I know there's a lot more 

Evie 27:26
thing. 

Wendy Beck 27:26
recovery resources available, but you know can you give us a little like a I guess a little story about how you solve the change and when it really started to change. 

Evie 27:39
I would say 10 years ago when we have more self-help books than literature and everybody has read self-help books and very often they are very confused, they're confused about the right, but they learned and 

very often they also become know with all that's the worst part of She wasn't she was a post to child of sobriety and now she's back to alcohol and she does exactly what all my responses, key irons, everybody does. Rationalizing that they are not alcoholics, they can drink socially. They don't want to live a life that is restricted and restricted to periair in my case when I then I go out I have to periair and that's it. Nobody looks funny anymore. I had to defend myself always why I'm not drinking and I made up a Liberty series. I was not there but I cannot not my level is compromised. I can only have the periair right but I have what she's not talking it's so classic. So classic that at one point they think they miss out on life and one of my clients wanted to convince me that I'm not an alcoholic either. I mean I hear that they cannot imagine that I am an alcoholic for the four years. You can't have it just a little bit 

Rich Bennett 29:38
but

Evie 29:42
they fall into this you know that's life to live. 

Wendy Beck 29:46
We've come a long way in the recovery. 

Rich Bennett 29:48
Oh we have. 

Wendy Beck 29:49
It's interesting to hear someone who you know has been in recovery for so long that they can share their story with us. So thank you. Thank you so much. 

Rich Bennett 30:03
Evie something very important. Tell people how they can get in touch with you. 

Evie 30:08
Oh the easiest is my website. www. curiotcoachevisa liveon.com. Here you have different 

pictures where I describe what I do with those smoking sessions. Smoking is... Can I talk about smoking? 

Rich Bennett 30:33
Quickly! 

Wendy Beck 30:33
Yes! 

Evie 30:37
It's a psychological addiction. It's not... it's not if it would be a physical addiction, we would have rehab clinics on every corner. But it does not... the Westworld does not effect your physical care. You can have headaches or something but not not like with alcohol and works that you have to be supervised by a doctor that you have to be in a rehab clinic if you cannot do this alone because it's dangerous and 

my experience with smokers is interesting. Decorate me and if you want to know, you know how many sessions and what the cost is. And if I'm booked and I cannot take them right away and with scheduling appointment for the next day you never ever show up. They have another package of cigarettes and then they say, "I do it at Christmas, baby, it's the company, you have to mail them immediately." And when they say it's the money and so, "Ok, I take payments, but let's start now." Because this is the only time they are receptive 

to 

Rich Bennett 32:06
smoking. 

Evie 32:06
stop And the worst thing is the vaping, you know, 

Rich Bennett 32:13
have 

Evie 32:14
they 

Rich Bennett 32:14
"Oh, 

Evie 32:15
yes" 

Wendy Beck 32:15
"Yes, that's very bad. That is a whole, we don't even know the damage that that's going to cause in the 

Evie 32:21
"Oh 

Wendy Beck 32:21
future." 

Evie 32:22
yes, it's 

Rich Bennett 32:26
already out, yeah." 

Evie 32:27
Yeah, yeah, the medical journal, the New England Medical Journal, had a wonderful, uh, uh, articles that I give them. Uh, input ends is very much tied to the way things. When they come to me with ED, the matter's question is, do you wait? It's always, yes. 

Wendy Beck 32:50
How about for women? 

Evie 32:51
OK? 

Wendy Beck 32:52
What about for women? 

Evie 32:54
Uh, for women, it, uh, it affects the fertility. 

Wendy Beck 33:02
Huh, why, 

Rich Bennett 33:03
Interesting. 

Wendy Beck 33:04
why, did they know why? 

Rich Bennett 33:07
How would say? 

Evie 33:07
Yeah, it is. Yeah, and, uh, those are all my, uh, substances and mixed was tobacco and cut nose, but elsim. 

Wendy Beck 33:21
Hmm. 

Evie 33:21
Man, it's just bad. 

Rich Bennett 33:23
It's, uh, people don't worry, because these vapes, the vapes are who, well, who created them first? The tobacco companies. It, it's, oh yeah, it's crazy, the, the oils, um, and I think it's something with the, it's like aluminum or, or metal shavings that get into your 

Wendy Beck 33:42
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 33:42
body. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's tearing people's lungs. 

Wendy Beck 33:46
Yeah, I, I just say, 

Rich Bennett 33:47
yes, it's, it's scary. It's very scary. 

Evie 33:53
Stay with the cigarettes, have your mom. 

Rich Bennett 33:58
And keep in mind, remember, because, well, before it was the vape, it was what the e cigarette? 

Evie 34:04
Oh, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 34:04
yeah. And what were they designed for to help people quit smoking? 

Evie 34:09
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:10
Well, it took her from, but it, it, you're still I think saw it went from one thing to worst thing. And all honestly, I think I think they're going to find that. And it's already starting to find out vaping is going to hurt people a lot faster than smoking cigarettes. 

Wendy Beck 34:30
Yeah, that's really unfortunate. Um, 

Rich Bennett 34:33
it is. It's, some of these things have any 

Wendy Beck 34:36
A 

Rich Bennett 34:36
freezing, 

Wendy Beck 34:36
lot of young people are vaping and they don't even realize 

Rich Bennett 34:39
yeah. 

Wendy Beck 34:39
the, the, the problem that they're going to have. 

Rich Bennett 34:42
Nope. Well, keep in mind too, Wendy. Well, well, maybe not you, but I remember when I was, when I was younger, Evie, you probably remember this. Yeah. With cigarettes, because the ads were how it, how it helped you. 

Evie 34:57
The smell that the slings, you know, I have always been in the fashion. So if you can't imagine when the slings came, I had a, uh, a holder. 

My father always said, why are you smoking? You're not inhaling. I had it for fashion reasons. 

Wendy Beck 35:20
It was an accessory. Yes. 

Evie 35:24
It was not to cigarettes so much, but the, and at home, I didn't smoke. I, I had my, my, all kinds of, of cigarettes, all the shorter ones and longer ones are very elegant ones. I've already, once. 

Rich Bennett 35:42
Evie, before I get to my last question, unless Wendy's got another question, is there anything you would like to add? 

Evie 35:50
Yes. I want to add that I have lived a very healthy life. 

Without seeing, yeah, I'm going to animals, but I have, I haven't had anything. 

I have been mainly happy. Life had ups and downs, but I was spared of, of horrible downs. And the ups are also the, even. So I'm not, uh, really designed for, for roller coasters anymore. So, could I have to be, even, 

Wendy Beck 36:38
cute? Yes. 

Evie 36:38
even 

Wendy Beck 36:39
I agree with that. It takes out the 

Rich Bennett 36:42
I 

Wendy Beck 36:42
drama. 

Rich Bennett 36:43
love that line. You're not designed for roller coasters anymore. I love that. Wow. Wendy, do you have anything before I get to my last 

Wendy Beck 36:54
No. 

Rich Bennett 36:54
question? 

Wendy Beck 36:54
I don't. 

Rich Bennett 36:55
All right. So, Evie, if you did not go to that meeting and find sobriety, where do you think you would be today? 

Evie 37:09
Six feet under. 

Rich Bennett 37:14
Really? 

Well, thank God that you are not, and you are here. And I want to thank you for helping others that, you know, are in addiction, along with everything else that you're helping them with. And, um, I, you know, congratulations as well for, you know, 40, 44 years, right? That's amazing, amazing. So, Evie, thanks so much. 

Wendy Beck 37:44
Thank you. It was really nice meeting you. 

Evie 37:47
Thank you. Thank you, Paul. It was a pleasure and an honor to have you 

Wendy Beck 37:52
here. Thank you. 

Evie 37:53
I think he is. 

Thank you. 

Rich & Wendy 37:56
Wendy, I understand that rage against addiction is doing something very important, a monthly donor program. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Absolutely. We are hoping to get our supporters to join us in providing a monthly donation. It can be $5 or it can be more, whatever you can afford really allows us to help plan and increase our fundraising efforts. Why should people become a monthly donor? What are they doing to help? Their monthly contributions let us plan for long-term projects and respond quickly when urgent needs arise. I'll give you an example. We had the need for a new mattress and we've also had urgent needs for refrigerators and washing machines and all of that kind of stuff that comes up, so they tend to need to be replaced and our women deserve to have the things that they need. So with the monthly donor program, technically anybody can do it for any amount and there, because rage against addiction always needs something. I've known you for years now and there's times you've told me you guys need a furniture, you need clothes, and also you're not getting the grants that you use to or the contributions that you use to. So this monthly donor program will definitely help a lot. Yes. So somebody becomes a monthly donor. What is there anything that they're getting in return besides, besides of course helping those that need it. I know you guys have an excellent newsletter, were they all the medics? We'll subscribe to that. We'll subscribe you to our newsletter so you'll know what's going on. You can track our progress. Here's success stories, know the data, and how many women we serve each year, and just be a part of something bigger. So with this I guess they're also going to be because of the newsletter. They're going to be one of the first ones to find out about events coming up like the memory walk and run, and the basketball bingo and any other future events that you're doing, the podcast that you do. Yes. So they're going to be tied in right away. Yes. All right, so how can they become a monthly donor? You can go to our website and that is rageagainstaddiction. org and go to our donate button. And on there you will have the option to become a monthly donor and you can put in any amount that you want. Your commitment, bigger small, empowers our mission and changes lives every single day. Visit us at rageagainstaddiction. org to become a reoccurring donor and join us in making a lasting impact. Thank you for your compassion, generosity, and belief in a brighter future. Together we can make a difference. Join us today.