Mae Abraham hears Father Martin present his “Blackboard Talk” at an AA meeting in Baltimore, and it transforms her life. From the moment the speaker came out and said, “Hello, I’m Father Martin, and I’m an alcoholic,” Mae recalls, “I sensed that I was in the presence of someone who knew and understood me. Everyone had been describing my drinking in terms of a problem with morality: I was evil, sinful, immoral, women, don’t behave this way. That night hearing Father Martin’s Backboard Talk, I could see clearly – for the first time – that I did have a problem, but it wasn’t a problem with morality, it was a problem with a disease.”