There’s Wilson family lore about a silver pocket watch that’s I’d love to prove. I don’t know what it looked like, other than it was smooth, silver, and had Emmett’s grandfather’s initials engraved on it — AEM — for Augustus Emmett Maxwell. It probably had a chain, and maybe a […]
In the quest to find intimate details about Emmett, I’d always thought that the person who would have known him best, the person who would have been closest to Emmett was his twin brother, Julian Anderson Wilson. Julian was named for Elizabeth Maxwell Wilson’s stepmother, Julia Anderson Hawkes Maxwell. He […]
One of the hardest lessons in life — and, about sobering up — is that we have to revisit the lessons often, remain teachable all our lives, in order for the learning to sink in. Rarely is life, or sobriety, a one-shot deal, like getting a polio vaccine. I wish […]
In Sunday’s online edition of The Washington Post, we find this interesting item: The survey doesn’t go back to Emmett’s time, but from what I’ve observed in the contemporary literature and media from his day, social drinking among those in his profession was ‘normal’, expected, typical. A man had a few […]
The following was read from a copy of the AA Grapevine at a meeting. It was something I needed to hear today. It was also something I believe Emmett needed to hear too, back in the day. You see, Emmett knew he had to stop drinking. It wasn’t just his […]
I found out a few days ago that someone I knew from my AA home group died of our common disease. We used to see him all the time at the club (what we call our regular meeting rooms at a local church) several times a week. He had many […]
Notice the date. In sum, here’s what happened, 97 years ago. Emmett was hospitalized at Pensacola Hospital for almost a week prior to his death; he went through a few days of harrowing delirium tremens (and was likely strapped down during the time). It wasn’t a regular hospital room; Pensacola […]
I often wonder about the relationship Emmett had with his mother: Was it formal or relaxed? Was it “Mother” or “Mom?” At this point, even after two years of research into Emmett’s life, I still don’t know much about Emmett’s mother, Elizabeth Virginia Maxwell Wilson. I’m still looking for family […]
Some alcoholics ‘hit bottom’ (i.e., reach a point where they become teachable, where they are sick and tired of being sick and tired) sooner than others. For myself, it came after about 30 years of moderate to occasional heavy drinking. At the end, it wasn’t as if I was having […]
Maybe this is all an off-shoot of the intense, compressed writing bloc over the past week, but I’ve noticed for the past several days that I have been — and am — mad at Emmett Wilson. This isn’t the first time I’ve been made at him, but this has been […]
Tell my story. 