Dr. Bob's Home, Akron

Is channeling alcoholic flashbacks allowed? Puking on the front lawn, and trashing the living room? Being passed out on the sacred couch, and peeing in the coffee pot? I mean, if ALCOHOLICS are visiting this place, then surely, some ALCOHOLIC activity ought to be taking place there, yes?

Everyone must visit Dr Bob's Home at least once in their sobriety. It was the very first Sober Home.

Climbing the 12 steps leading into the home and to be "Welcomed Home" to tour the house was very touching. Even with over 30 years of sobriety myself, I was still not prepared for the "welcome", the friendliness and the very informative tour. A very memorable "energy spurt" to my personal recovery. Thank you, AA Akron, for all your efforts in restoring this wonderful place.

It felt as though Dr. Bob had just stepped out to make a house call. The feeling of sitting at the table and drinking a cup of coffee like many recovering folks of the last 7 plus decades was amazing. There is no flash, no glitz, just the simplicity of the man and the program he helped found. There may be other ways of finding sobriety but I found it in this simple, not easy, program conceived all those years ago, by two men whose only real link was their disease and their common solution. People outside the recovering community probably find this place unremarkable. I did not. The volunteers, Ray and Eric, were instant friend and companions on the journey. To all who visit it truly is a Welcome Home.

went to my first founders day this year (2006) and when i got off the shuttle at dr.bob's house and looked up and saw the banner, "welcome home", i was overwhelmed with emotion. "welcome home", i felt like i was home, like i had just crossed over to a new life again. i have almost 17 years of the program but i felt like it was my first day of sobriety. it was the most moving experience i have ever felt, surrounded by so many miracles and so many smiling faces, people who were genuinely thankful to be alive and free. I feel like a new woman today, now that i've "been there." i bought the book that dr. Bob's kids wrote and read the whole thing on the plane on the way to my home. it gave the word grateful a new meaning for me. when i entered the sick room, i knelt down and said the prayer that was on the bed and felt as though they were right there helping me too. when i sat at their kitchen table i felt the love and also the pain they must have experienced. on sunday when we went to the gravesite, wow, they haven't invented the words to describe the feelings that flooded my body and my mind. When they played taps "amazing grace" and the member who spoke to us over the intercom, (although we could not see him) he stated that they play one for dr. Bob, one for anne and then one for "us", i felt like a million miracles. my gratitufe expands to each and every person that made that weekend happen for me and my husband (who is also an alcoholic 6 years sobriety). we will definitely make that our yearly prilgrimage so that we may be of service once again with serenity, peace and love. When we were in the jar hall and the thunder roared with gratitude and love, it was like a rock concert without the band. The countdown was amazing, and for the moment i wished the whole world could have been sober. thank god, thank god, thank god.

Dr. Bob's Home and the annex next to it are far more than monuments or memorials or inspirational retreats. When you go there, as I have done many times, you have an opportunity to see what can still be done for an alcoholic today. It doesn't require a pretentious hospital or rehab. For here a loving wife and her husband crammed scores of seemingly hopeless drunks into an all-too-small "halfway house;" fed them scanty meals from a tiny kitchen; showered them with godly concern and discipline; taught them about our Creator's love, power, forgiveness, guidance, and Word; steered them away from temptation; insisted on moral behavior; and required the high price of real treatment--love and service to others. Go to Dr. Bob's Home for a lesson that neither money, nor treatment, nor textbooks, nor therapy hold a candle to, compared to what a few drunks can do for each other when they acknowledge that alcohol is the enemy, temptation is the snare, sin is the enticement, God is the solution, and the principles of living love and practicing service to the glory of the Creator assure a cure when nothing else works.

It was absolutely amazing, a true spiritual experience. Thank you for keeping this home open. All AAs must come home at least once in their sobriety.

I am so Glad I got to see Dr.Bob's House.