My name is Richard Trice, and I serve as President of Glenbeigh Hospital and Outpatient Centers. Since 1981, Glenbeigh’s alcohol and drug treatment center helps individuals and families learn to lead a healthy life-style in recovery. Visit Glenbeigh.com

My family hopes to share a little about our experience with alcoholism and addiction, the strength we found through recovery and family programs, and the hope we continue to hold for our son—and for everyone walking this path with a loved one. My goal today is to offer the triad of experience, strength, and hope that I pray you can carry with you on your own journey. 

My wife and I often return to the three C’s of Al-Anon:

We didn’t cause it.
We can’t control it.
And we certainly can’t cure it.

I am a pharmacist, and I have spent my entire career in healthcare. Yet until addiction touched my own family, I did not realize how little I understood about substance use disorder.

On New Year’s Day in 2017, my wife and I found ourselves driving our son to Glenbeigh Hospital. It was one of those bitterly cold January mornings, but unlike many winter days in northeastern Ohio, the sky was bright—partly sunny, with big white clouds drifting across a blue horizon. As beautiful as it was outside, the atmosphere in our home had grown dark and heavy. Over the previous four to five years, those clouds had slowly gathered until they felt like a vortex, with a tornado finally touching down.

My wife and I had isolated ourselves from our son’s struggle—partly out of pride, but mostly out of embarrassment, believing somehow that we must have failed as parents. Because of that, we had no real resources and no support system in place.

That drive to Glenbeigh Hospital was the longest 13 miles of my life, and yet it seemed to pass in an instant. By the time we arrived, the partly cloudy morning had opened into full sun, with only a few white clouds scattered across a crystal-blue sky.

What we were living through was incredibly difficult, but it also became the foundation for a better way of life for our entire family.

During our first Sunday family group at Glenbeigh, my son’s counselor suggested that we attend Al-Anon. Debbie and I were hanging on every word—through our tears, I might add. We didn’t know much about it, but if it could help Ryan, we were ready. That week, we visited four or five different Al-Anon meetings before finding a Tuesday night group that fit our schedule and commitments.

Today, I am proud to say that my son Ryan has achieved remarkable milestones: 10 years of sobriety, a loving marriage, two young sons, and a career that continues to thrive.

That is why Debbie and I are here today—not only to invest in an organization like the ARCHway Foundation, which is transforming the world of recovery, but also to share my story. I cannot say that I know your story, but I do know what it is like for a family to navigate this journey with fear, confusion, and a deep desire to restore both a loved one and the family itself. Miracles do happen, and it is my hope that ARCHway’s programs can help bridge that gap so that miracles happen for you, your family, and the person you love.

With that, I wish you a journey filled with peace, hope, and joy, and: