This year Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, celebrated forty years of helping people recover from substances. Betty Ford was a courageous voice in the recovery community and stood loud and proud when she recovered from her addictions to alcohol and prescription medications. After detoxing on my own, I went to the BFC in November of 2020 and went straight into their residential sober living homes on Daisy Lane, about a mile from the BFC.
There I participated in high-intensity outpatient treatment for my alcoholism while living in a house with five other women. I was there for three weeks, and it gave me a great foundation to begin a sober life, with tools and strategies, a plan for jumping into AA, and a group of women with who I am still walking the road of recovery two years later. That group of women, the Bettys as we call ourselves, has been one of the greatest gifts of my sobriety. Who knew I had to admit and submit to my greatest weakness in life, to get a group of amazing women I now call my friends?
I also drank the AA Kool-Aid and managed to get the BEST sponsor in the world. I have been sober one other time in my life and was absolutely miserable. This time, I prayed for God to help me find joy in my life again, and He gave me the most charismatic, funny, loving, authentic, real, strong, tell-it-like-it-is, no-nonsense sponsor in the world. Hand-picked just for me! At two years sober, life isn’t the pink cloud anymore. But the serenity part shows up more and more in my life. The more I hand over to Him, the more at peace I feel in my day-to-day life. It is that simple.
The Bettys meet every Sunday night and then gather yearly in Ranch Mirage to celebrate our recovery and community. Being a part of the BFC 40th was such a special part of our recovery for each of us. The BFC rolled out the red carpet for alums and anyone who supported those in recovery. They hosted alum luncheons and dinners, serenity hikes, medallion ceremonies, recovery workshops, AA meetings and meditation, and much more.
The gala at the end was spectacular, with every speaker bringing tears to everyone’s eyes with the passion they brought to recovery. Hearing Betty Ford’s daughter Susan Ford speak was an honor I will never forget. Dee Dee Pfeifer’s speech was AMAZING, and it is awesome to see her at four years sober shouting her sobriety from the platforms where she has a voice. Hearing our fellow brother Nick who we knew from Daisy Lane, speak about how AA has transformed his life and how Betty Ford gave him the courage to face his disease was another highlight for the Bettys and me.
I remember the first year we got together for our Bettys retreat and how we all struggled to ‘act’ like we were having fun. This year I got asked if I was a cheerleader! People wanted to know who we were, what we were! Because we were having FUN in recovery! So much fun. We had seen each other for two years go through trials and tribulations, highs and lows, good times and bad times, and to get together and be able to celebrate that along with the vision Betty Ford had forty years ago and all of the people who have recovered because of that vision the weekend felt magical.
This Speak Out! Speak Loud! post was provided by Heidi P., the founder of the Betty’s
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