Wisconsin Voices For Recovery Newsletter

Iam Valerie Dawn, 44, recovering alcoholic and meth addict. I have been clean and sober for a little over ten years. I have two amazing children 25 and 20. O am divorced from their father after 15 years, which was a very verbal and physically abusive marriage. I’m working hard daily to enjoy my life. I graduated from Cedartown High in 1994. I have worked hard to get and stay sober.

I worked for my grandparents doing construction off and on from 1992 until his passing in 2004. I still worked at the Waffle House. I have waited at the table and customer service. Unfortunately, I ended up with a drug and alcohol problem.

I (Valerie Dawn) have two amazing children 25 and 20. I am divorced from their dad. I am ten years clean and sober. I lived in Boston for a few years. My granddaughter was born so I returned. I have been separated from my husband since 2009. In 2015 I returned to Georgia to help my daughter and my son.

Now I live in Carrollton GA with my boyfriend/boss. I have been helping him with his landscaping business. I enjoy being outside. I really like seeing the difference from start to finish. Dirt to daisies. Rock to roses. Woods to walking path.

My childhood was what some people call emotional. My father murdered my mother in 1981. I was not quite five yet. My grandmother (her mom) and I found her. I was so young it really never hit me the severity of what happened until I was in my 20s. I still can’t make sense of it. Luckily my grandparents were great and did the best they could. I lost my mom that I was too young to really know but they lost their daughter, to the man she loved and had two children with. But I am ok. It’s the past.

Everyone has a tragedy that can’t cry because of it. Shit fucking happens. My father spent 20 years in prison to get out and tell me he didn’t know me. All I (Valerie Dawn) wanted to know was why? What made him shoot her in the bed while she slept? What gave him the right to take her life? So I hope the basted rots in hell. I was over being mad or hating him. I was numb to it and he could not even acknowledge me.

All suffering, stress, and addiction come from not realizing you already are what you are looking for. 

-Jon Kabat-Zinn

I am now trying to enjoy life and move forward in mine. I never realized until now that I enjoy answering these questions. I wish I could have been able to ask ppl random questions.

I hope that I am not being too blunt and straightforward. I hope that everyone enjoys my answers and that they are some kind of help.