Things Got Worse Faster Than I Could Lower My Standards - AA Speaker - Tim W.
Podcast: Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker PodcastPublished On: Wed Apr 22 2026
Description: Tim was 38, sleeping under a freeway bridge, and begging for wine money when his mom said she couldn't watch him die — today he runs the same central office where a stranger once welcomed him in without flinching. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Tim showed up drunk at his mother's door at 38 years old and told her not to worry — she told him she couldn't watch him die and gave him twenty bucks. He spent half on wine and half on a bus ticket back to Sacramento. When a drinking buddy suggested Santa Barbara, they got separated on arrival and Tim went looking for him at AA, where a woman at central office treated him with a kindness he never forgot. Today Tim runs that same office. He takes meetings into a level-three prison yard where lifers carry the message to men who can't leave their cell block. He held a sponsee's hand as he died surrounded by an AA meeting at his bedside. And one afternoon he answered two phone calls — a sober woman who needed someone to talk to and a young woman who couldn't stop drinking — and connected line one to line two, because that's how it works the best. Tim W. from Santa Barbara, CA speaking at the Third Tradition Speaker Meeting in Studio City, CA - May 1st 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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