In September 2007, I attended my first regional conference in Irvine, CA. This was my first conference and the first time I had driven alone early on a Saturday morning (for 1 ½ hours) for my recovery. I was 29 years old and two years sober.
I lost my father a year ago. I know that he was liberated from the old body that tormented him. However, I never knew for sure that he looked upon his death as a spiritual passage to a higher level of consciousness.
I first met Roy at a meeting at a regional convention in Irvine, CA in 2006. As the meeting was about to begin, I heard someone whisper, “Hey, there’s Roy K.!” The room was crammed with maybe 50 people, and I spent the rest of the meeting trying to guess which one he was.
I was riding the elevator at the convention in Philly a few years ago. I think it might be the last Roy attended. The elevator door opened, Roy stepped in, and he asked if this was the way to the newcomers meeting.
Though I did not know Roy personally, I was deeply moved by the news of his death. I heard him speak once at an International Convention in New Jersey and I liked him: a dignified-looking older gentleman. Roy’s passing reminds me of the great gift SA has been in my life, a gift which I would not have today were it not for this man.
In January 1994, I attended my first SA convention in Rochester, NY. After the Friday evening session, I joined a small group of people standing around Roy. I’ve been fortunate on a few occasions to meet certain rare individuals who have the true gift of presence. Roy was one of them.
Roy K., the founder of our program, died peacefully last September. He had suffered from cancer. He was in his early eighties.
Dear SA Fellowship: I am writing to you on behalf of the SAUK Intergroup. At our last meeting in London, we read out loud Roy K.’s article “The Searchlight of the Spirit” from the September ’09 ESSAY. We also sadly learnt of Roy’s death.
I had been attending SA for two months when I ventured out to Nashville for the January 1990 International Convention. Seeing that sea of people in that ballroom, I was sold on the SA fellowship. But not on what it stood for.
It was 1993 and I was barely three years sober when I flew with my sponsor to my first big convention in Nashville, TN. I can remember how excited I was to meet all those wonderful long-time-sober members whose voices and stories I knew from the tapes!
