When her drunken husband threatened to kill her and her children and fired a shotgun in her house, Patricia Rini fled with a few meager possessions, no self-esteem and no means to feed her children. She was so desolate that she prayed for her own death as a solution.

Her prayers were answered in a different way. She learned to fight back and to heal. She started her life over, learned to support her family, joined a twelve-step program and doggedly struggled to overcome her codependency.

 

She attended hundreds of A.A. and Al-Anon meetings. She regained her faith in God. She married a reformed, sober alcoholic, began counseling and boarding alcoholics in her home and became a highly sought-after speaker.

Patricia suffered the loss of family members and many friends to alcoholism and codependency, but it was the murder of her husband that truly tested the fabric of the program she had learned through "trial by fire."

She spent nine years recording her moving and inspirational story to help others who suffer to recover and lead meaningful, joyful lives.