C.T. – Sober 37 Years

C.T. – Sober 37 Years

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation with Charles T. – known as C.T. – brings 37 years of sobriety to life with honesty, humour, and a lot of heart. Growing up in South Texas, C.T. lost his mum at five and never knew his dad.

Instead, he was raised by his deeply spiritual Auntie Irene, a woman of action who ran alcohol-selling businesses yet taught him that “the only reason why we’re alive is to be a help to someone else.” Despite those strong values, his teens and twenties were filled with alcohol, drugs, and wild stories that stretched from Boy Scout mushrooms to DWI arrests and long stretches off work thanks to a very forgiving railway sick policy.

As his drinking escalated through a 14–15 year career on the railroad, the consequences mounted: jail time, near misses at work, and a marriage on the brink. A God-moment ride home in the back of a stranger’s pickup and a neighbour’s insistence on taking him to a meeting nudged him towards help.

He eventually volunteered for treatment through his employer and moved into a halfway house, where he started to “stand on [his] own two feet.” You’ll hear how NA, CA and AA each shaped his early recovery, how a calm, punctual old-timer became his sponsor, and why he now takes service work so seriously. There’s also powerful family recovery: his wife Maddie embracing Al‑Anon for 34 years and even serving as a regional delegate, and C.T.

later becoming full‑time carer for his ill son before his passing. Through grief, racial discrimination, career pressure and family upheaval, C.T. keeps returning to one simple language: the language of the heart. If you’ve ever wondered whether long-term sobriety can stay real, funny, and deeply spiritual, this conversation might be exactly what you need today.