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Can you name the two characters in the image below and state their importance to AA history?

One of the less known stories in AA history is that of Sue and Robert Smith. Sue was born in 1918 to a broken family, was institutionalized for 2 years and later adopted as Robert’s sister, when both children were 5 years old. They grew up in a well-kept house in the working class suburbs of Akron Ohio, a neighborhood where the local kids would gather in the street with their fathers and play ball. Their mother was a kind, intelligent woman who busied herself with crafts and home-bound artistic pursuits and enjoyed listening to political debates and opera on the family radio. Their father was a respected, charismatic doctor, a specialist, who kept up on the new slang and was able to engage in friendly conversation with just about anyone, anywhere. Their lives were, on most levels, calm and situated. Yet, somehow, in 1935, a man shimmied down a drainpipe at their family home and chased after Sue and Robert’s mother with a butcher’s knife. Continue reading →