Soar Like an Eagle, One Day at a Time: a Portrait of an Alcoholic

The story begins in a Northern Wisconsin resort area, and is told by Sarah Ann Bray Regent. She and her husband purchased a bar after he was injured in a bar fight. Good thinking! She was against buying a bar from the start. No one in their right mind would take over a condemned kitchen and try to make a go of it. She did it, though, and the business was booming. Her worst problem was the drinking, hers and his. After the birth of her last son, Bobby, at age forty-three Sarah decides to quit drinking. She hates the life they are living in the bar, Carl's mental and physical abuse, and her own abuse of alcohol. Ilka, a lady she has befriended, puts her in touch with Alcohol Anonymous. When she stopped drinking, the physical abuse and Carl's infidelity get worse. He beat her so badly in an angry rage that she is taken to the hospital by ambulance and almost dies. Carl is passed out drunk, while Bobby sleeps. After her release from the hospital, Social Service arranges a stay for her and Bobby in a small motel, they use as a safe house. Sarah uses the recuperation time to heal and think back on her life. She needs to find out why the alcohol she has always hated has become the center of her life. Each day while Bobby is in school, she relaxes, while healing, with her coffee and recalls her past. As she clears the clutter from her head, it becomes evident how she had fallen into the trap that had plagued her family for generations. Is she strong enough anymore to make it on her own? Her self-esteem and strength are at ground zero. Ilka spends as much time as possible with them. Their friendship grows and Sarah's strength returns. With very few resources she makes a good life for her son and herself, only to have her health fail. She and her son move back to Fennimore, in the southwestern corner of the state. This is Sarah's hometown and her family is close by. She learns that brain surgery is needed. Now she has three major battles, a battle with the bottl