In a celebration of recovery, 1,500 visitors to Salt Lake paraded through the Delta Center Friday night as part of the Al-Anon and Alateen Family Group International Convention.
Dressed in everything from traditional kilts and kimonos to lobster suits and silly hats, it was clear these visitors - 4,500 counting the audience - were ready to get rowdy.Convention-goers told jokes while walking from the Salt Palace, where the convention was held, to the Delta Center, and everyone did the wave while waiting for the parade to begin. Stomps and cheers in the center resembled those of any sporting event at the center.
"For years, we lived in fear and didn't know how to play. This is our form of playing," said Phyllis M., director of public outreach for the World Service Office of the Al-Anon Family Group and a member. "We are learning to enjoy life instead of just survive."
Al-Anon and Alateen are sister groups to Alcoholics Anonymous. Rather than help the alcoholics themselves, the organizations help the relatives and friends of alcoholics, with Alateen geared toward younger ages. The groups are based in Virginia Beach, Va.
There are 30,000 Al-Anon groups internationally, with 74 branches in Utah. The group refrains from identifying members with their full names for the sake of anonymity and because they feel group progress is more important than individual personalities.
Those in the parade were from nearly every state in the United States, and foreign countries, such as China, Italy, Russia and several from Africa, were represented. A variety of costumes were worn. Members from Kentucky were dressed in jockey's suits. Mexican members sported sombreros, while Iowans wore oversized cobs of corn on their heads.
Phyllis M. said the support group shows the resilience of human nature, as many "have been to hell and back."
Such was the case for Beryl S. of Australia, who told the convention that even though she knew she loved her alcoholic husband, she fantasized about poisoning him in his sleep.
"It's the saddest, saddest thing that alcoholism robs of us that love," said Beryl S.
Although she and her husband ended up divorcing after 40 years, Al-Anon gave her the ability to love and go on. Now, she said, she and her ex-husband get together on a regular basis.
Yvonne I. of Brazil told a similar story. As a child, alcoholic parents robbed her of the ability to learn love. Her husband was also an alcoholic, and she reacted to him with bitterness.
"If you were watching my husband and I, you would think I was the alcoholic," Yvonne I. said.
But finally, Yvonne I. said, through Al-Anon, she was able to learn the language of love.
Al-Anon began when the wives of Alcoholics Anonymous members gathered in kitchens while their husbands met. The group has grown to international proportions since then, but the membership is 85 percent women.