Lorna K – San Fernando CA

Lorna K – San Fernando CA

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This recording from the MD Tapes Archive drops you right into Lorna K’s funny, sharp and deeply honest account of alcoholic thinking, spiritual growth and long-term sobriety. Speaking at a convention in San Fernando, California, Lorna jokes that she’s "not here to help you at all" – she’s sharing because *she* needs to hear the message too.

From her days as the first woman art auctioneer in America, drinking vodka and orange on an empty stomach at Bemelman's Bar, to realising she was fascinated by AA stories, you’ll hear how identification slowly replaced denial. She talks about the messy, "tawdry" nature of her bottom, the loneliness on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the shock of recognising, "It’s not the husband, the lover, the job, the country.

I drink." Her sponsor’s promise of a life like "a quiver of golden arrows" – tools to hit life’s bullseye – becomes a central image of what recovery can look like. Lorna also shares later-life challenges: cancer, a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and heart failure, all faced sober, with both humour and grit.

There’s a brilliant aside about her tiny role as the auctioneer in *Sex and the City*, and a much more serious account of acting as spiritual advisor to a man on death row. Her stories about her friendship with Mother Teresa are especially striking. When she refuses sacramental wine, Mother squeezes her hand and says, "You must continue to protect your precious gift" – a line Lorna passes straight on to anyone trying to stay sober today.

She finishes by challenging harsh attitudes to relapse and clean-time counting, insisting that "there’s no going back" and that everyone in the room matters, whether brand new or decades sober. If you’ve ever felt "wrong" or out of place, could this be the perspective you need to hear today?