Remembering Bellaire Gardens

Cleveland Canvas Goods

Bill and Mike Morton owners of Cleveland Canvas Goods traded me 100 yards of high quality canvas for a large oil painting installed in there office. I've been using there canvas for years and have been very happy with the results.

My Last Drink

My last drink was January 4th 1984. I used to say that I quit drinking that day, I tried to quit drinking many times before that. It was easy to quit but hard to stay quit. Why did I have the strength that day? After long reflection I've realized that it wasn't me. I was given a gift,the gift of sobriety.
I was spending all my money on alcohol, sick and tired of being sick and tired, feeling angry isolated and alone. I had experienced all the things that go along with an alcoholic life. The most honest prayer I could muster was "Lord I don't want to quit drinking but I know I have to". On that last day I had a glimpse of what kind of guy I really was, not the picture I had of myself but my real situation.
I realized I was nothing, that I had a ruthless concentration on self and my life was ruled by self pity, anxiety, resentment and hate. I was an asshole who didn't now how to live sober. This was my "bottom", it felt hopeless.
I knew about a group of people who's only aim was to stay sober and help another alcoholic achieve sobriety. They told me I didn't have to live that way any more and showed me a new way of life, something I didn't know anything about. I realized the only way to learn how to stay sober is by some one else who all ready had.
I was given hope and a new way of living to be applied one day at a time.