This anonymous alcoholic was a seasoned health care professional, an addiction "expert" whose isolation had convinced him there was no help for himself. He had sent thousands of patients to the old mansion at 1311 York Street, a meeting place for recovery, but he had never climbed those steps himself. Desperation and terminal loneliness finally brought him to call an old drinking buddy who had been sober for three years. For the first time in his life he no longer felt alone. Thus began a new life for the ex-expert, now glad to be a perennial newcomer.