SPOTLIGHT ON…
Toasting Sobriety in Akron: Al-Anon member hosts Founders
Day event for 12th year
By Jim Carney, Akron Beacon Journal
A Polish recovery
homecoming happened Friday night in Akron.
On the first night of
Founders Day weekend, several kinds of Polish sausages sizzled on five grills
in the driveway of Irena H.'s home in northwest Akron, as dozens of friends of
Dr. Bob and Bill W. gathered together to celebrate their sobriety and their
Polish heritage.
For the 12th year in a
row, the 62-year-old Irena (pronounced Erenna), a Polish native and a longtime
member of Al-Anon, a 12-step program for family and friends of alcoholics, has
hosted a group of Polish recovering alcoholics at her home, turning her
driveway into a site for a picnic and a Polish-speaking A.A. meeting early in
the evening.
Lawn chairs were set up on
the driveway as were homemade seats made out of large buckets with pillows on
top for all the visitors. About a dozen men and women were staying at her home
this weekend, the annual event commemorating the founding of Alcoholics
Anonymous in Akron in June 1935 by Dr. Robert
Smith, an Akron doctor, and Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker.
Irena moved to Chicago from Poland in 1971, and soon met a
Danish man, Tage H. The two later married and soon, she discovered that her
husband was an alcoholic. Tage, she said, went into treatment for alcoholism
and Irena began attending A.A. meetings with him, even though she was not
alcoholic. She also began attending Al-Anon meetings.
A few years later, after
Tage had been to two alcohol treatment centers, she and her husband moved to Akron, where Tage had
family. He was a longtime chef at
the now defunct Lou and Hy's Deli in West Akron.
Once in Akron, Irena said, her husband remained sober
and attended A.A. meetings and she immersed herself in the A.A. and Al-Anon
community here. In 1991 and 1992, friends of A.A. asked her if she could help
deliver some information to officials in the recovery movement in Poland.
Through the efforts of
Father Sam Ciccolini, the founder and executive director of Interval
Brotherhood Home, along with other groups including the University
of Akron and Goodyear, a thick packet
of information was prepared on how IBH operates as a model for groups in Poland
interested in setting up alcohol treatment facilities. In 1992, Irena took the
material to Poland.
Four years later, Irena
was at Dr. Bob' House at 855 Ardmore Ave., the home of Smith and his wife,
Anne, over Founders Day weekend, volunteering during the weekend's activities.
Irena, then a member of the board of trustees of the nonprofit group that
operates the home, met three people at the home who were originally from Poland and who
did not speak English.
That weekend, she gave the
three a tour of the house and some history of A.A. in Akron and her contact information. The next
year, they came back to Akron
and brought a few friends and some Polish sausage to cook when they visited
Irena's home. Word spread among Polish A.A. members about Irena and her
hospitality.
At an interstate highway
rest stop, on their way to Akron, some Polish
A.A. members encountered some sober motorcyclists, also on their way to Akron. The Polish group
told the bikers about Irena's cookout. And soon, some bikers began to show up
at Irena's as well. Before long, it became a Founders Day tradition of
gathering for a picnic and a Polish speaking A.A. meeting. Last year, 94 people
attended the doings at Irena's and this weekend, she was expecting about 100.
Friday night, Irena
greeted those coming to the picnic with hugs and beaming smiles. Many of the
people at the cookout had not seen Irena since last year but she stays in touch
with most by phone during the year.
One person from Poland, who came to Akron last year but could not come this year,
called Irena late Friday afternoon to say hello. A 55-year-old construction
worker from Chicago, who came to the U.S. from Poland in 1995, he met Irena at Dr.
Bob's House in 1996. Irena took him and two other Polish friends on a tour of
A.A. sites that day. She gave them her number and the next year they brought
more friends with them. ''A miracle,'' is how the man described that meeting
with Irena. He has come to Akron every year but
one since then and said he often dreamed of coming to Akron
when he still lived in Poland
and attended A.A. meetings there. What he loves, the man said, is to ''walk on
the same sidewalks'' where Dr. Bob and Bill W. walked.
Mark, a 50-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y.,
brought a few dozen Polish sausages with him from home and about 6 p.m. Friday
he threw them on one of the grills. He came to the U.S.
from Poland
27 years ago, will celebrate his ninth year of sobriety soon, and has been to
Irena's four years in a row.
The first year he came,
there were only four people from New
York at Irena's.
This year, he expected about 40. The wallpaper and painting contractor,
said every year, coming to Akron
helps keep him sober. ''I stay sober and am waiting for the next year to come
to Akron,'' he
said.
Being involved in Al-Anon
and in touch with the traditions of A.A., Irena said, has been an
inspiration. ''I use the 12 steps every
day — 20,000 times a day,'' said Irena, now 62, who works for the East Akron
Community House.
She said she is grateful
that she was married to an alcoholic. ''I was given a pattern, a map, for
living, and of course, my husband stayed sober, which was a marvelous bonus,''
she said.
Father Ciccolini said that
there is much to learn from the example of Irena and the Polish Akron
connections that have been made over the years. ''It says, with all respect, it
is truly a God inspired program in that it is an instrument of great healing
and hope,'' he said. ''Once a person has benefited from it, they know God is
involved in this program that knocks down all barriers and it goes to any
corner of the world.''
Tage died in 2005, and
since his death, Irena has remarried. Her current husband, Richard P., also of
Polish descent, is an A.A. member and has been in the program for 13 years of
sobriety.
A.A. and the traditions of
the recovery movement, she said, have ''allowed me to become honest with
myself, to know who I am and know who I want to be.''
What A.A. gave her, she
said, is ''a model for life.''