October 10, 2024
“And when your earthly journey is finally at an end, you and I will come to be together once again.”
— Donna Schilling
Rob was sitting down for Sunday dinner when he got the phone call. Bill B. had died that morning in Hospice. A month before, he had seen him after he got out of the hospital, and he knew it was only a matter of time. Rob had lost track of the times he had been in and out of the hospital.
Bill was the second person he met when he walked through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous 49 years ago. Bill was the one who drove him to meetings because he didn’t have a car. Bill was the guy who told him “This too shall pass” when he thought he might pick up a drink because his girlfriend had left him. The guy who told him what seemed like one of the most profound and yet simple-minded truths of the universe: “There’s no problem a drink will make better.”
But it all made sense. And now he was gone. A week before he died, he realized he might not see him again, so he sent him an email that said: “Bill, I wanted to write you. I heard you had COVID and are not doing well. You’ve been a true friend throughout my sobriety, and I count you as a guiding light who brought me out of an immense darkness of alcoholism. You’ve helped a lot of guys, and I, for one, will be eternally grateful to you and to my Higher Power who put you in my path. You’re a good man and a true friend, and I don’t suppose I have to tell you that true friends are rare, especially true sober friends who have faith. God bless you and your family a day at a time.”
Bill had achieved the greatest goal in life for a recovering alcoholic. He died sober.
During his funeral Mass, Rob paused to think of all the others over the years he had known in the program who had died sober and were having a wonderful reunion now at a heavenly 12 Step meeting … There was Bill, Phil, Little Bob, Val, Helen, Joe P., Joe S., Peg, Bobby H., Claire, Ed C., Bill M. Even though it hurt to think about it, he found himself laughing.
“Enjoy yourself, Bill,” he said out loud. “I won’t tell you, ‘a day at a time’ because there’s no time in eternity. Just forever.”
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