Celebrating 75 Years of Hope and Healing!
This year marks a remarkable milestone—75 years of Al‑Anon Family Groups offering help and hope to those affected by someone else’s drinking.
As we reflect on this legacy, we invite you to share your own message of congratulations. Send us your tribute, memory, or words of appreciation to be featured on our Member Blog.
As always, you can also write about Al‑Anon’s three Legacies. This month features Step Three, Tradition Three, and Concept Three.
Sharings on the Member Blog may be used in future Al‑Anon publications.
New topics are being added each month!
I remember my first Al-Anon meeting – insanely scared, lonely, and angry. I knew my life was unmanageable and felt like a failure at being a wife and mother. I attended meetings trying to be invisible, looking down at my hands in my lap and only speaking to tell the group my name. They shared their experience, strength and hope, saw my potential, and offered me the opportunity to serve as the literature coordinator. I devoured the literature, gained serenity, self-worth, gratitude and detachment. Thank you Al-Anon for enabling me to learn to use all the gifts that I have… Read more »
I am humbled at the thought of Al-Anon celebrating its 75th Anniversary….from humble beginning to world wide fellowship…it is my hope that it continues to florish for another 75 years…to all the members who came before us I applaud you for all of your hard work and dedication
Al-Anon has given my life purpose beyond anything I could have ever imagined. With the use of the program tools specifically the Serenity Prayer and a strong belief in my Higher Power I experience my life’s challenges now with Grace and Hope. My ups and downs are not as extreme as they used to be before coming to Al-Anon. Al-Anon service has given me self confidence and improved communication skills. My gratitude is profound and immense. Happy 75th Anniversary Al-Anon. I would be lost without you!
I was so tired of waiting for the alcoholic to change…if only! I was so focused on their becoming sober as the solution to all my life problems that I never realized my part in all of this chaos. Sure, I didn’t pour the booze down their throat or support any negative thoughts about themselves. But it took some time for me to recognize that this program was for ME; to investigate my actions or reactions, to understand the disease more clearly, to detach with love, and avoid engaging in cyclical arguments, again and again and again. Nothing changes if… Read more »
I have always felt a special connection to Al-Anon’s age; I too was born in May of 1951. As I get closer to my 75th birthday, I reflect back on my fascinating life. I realize what a gift Al-Anon has been to me since I discovered this world-wide fellowship in 2003. I feel thankful to God and Lois Wilson for having my recovery program well in place when I walked into my first meeting. God knows I desperately needed it and continue to need it in my daily life. I will keep coming back as long as I can walk.… Read more »
In a desperate attempt to climb out of my rock bottom, I went to my first Al-Anon meeting. Several weeks later, it became apparent there were changes happening in me. It trickled down to my family and was our start of our healing journey. I’m so grateful for Al-Anon.
Thank you for 75 years of recovery! The durability of Al-Anon fortifies my hope for ongoing recovery in my life and in the lives of people not yet born. Al-Anon is not a fly-by-night self-help fad. It doesn’t promise overnight success or a path to wealth and fame. Al-Anon promises recovery to those who choose to follow the well-worn path to serenity. I love seeing friends in meetings who have been there for decades, like me. I love seeing new faces and encouraging them with the hope of the program. Working through the Steps, Traditions and Concepts with my sponsor… Read more »
I joined in 1986 and continue to come. Being a grandchild of alcoholic granddads I learned to stuff, run, hide and work on changing every one around me. Al-anon has taught me to speak, pray and change me. I’m turning 75 in June and am the contact person for a phone meeting. Grateful
75 years is a hair more than the number of years I have been alive a third of which I have been a member of Al-Anon. At this point in my life in and outside the fellowship, I am more aware than ever before of how big and diverse the world is and that in order to best welcome, attract, and serve those affected by a problem drinker anywhere, I need to think – as in the slogan “think” – about whether my words are comprehensible to someone for whom English may be a second language, for example. Al-Anon being… Read more »
I’ve only been apart of the Al-Anon Family (adult) for 2.5 months, and I am so deeply appreciative of the program. The group is filling a gap in my life that I didn’t know was there, I feel a sense of belonging that I never experienced in my family. Thank you to all the kind people that makes Al-Anon so accessible and welcoming!
When my Dad checked into rehab, my Mom had to go to Al-Anon and us kids to Alateen. I remember walking in the room of Alateen and hearing the kids share and thought, OMG! they feel just like I do – wow. I finally found a place where I feel I belong and could be understood. But Mom didn’t think Al-Anon/Alateen was for us so we only went that one time. However, after I married and realized my life was a mess with my husband’s drinking, I remembered that Alateen meeting and how I felt there. That’s when I found… Read more »
I didn’t understand how much help I needed; or that it was me that needed the help. I am so grateful for all the people in Al-Anon who helped me to see that I was not crazy; that I am a worthwhile person. I know now that I am not alone and that I will always have this group as a support, whether the alcoholic in my life is drinking or not. My life has changed over the years and even when difficult situations come my way, I have a better way of handling them and I no longer disappear… Read more »