I went to a reunion dinner for a detox center as a guest of a former inmate. There were 400 people there, people achieving sobriety a day at a time, and those who love them.

The guest speaker was Judy Collins, who is 71 years old. Many of the younger people, and I mean 40 somethings, had no idea who she was. The woman I went with thought she was the author Jackie Collins, sister of Joan Collins. "She gave Danielle Steele a run for the money back in the 1980s," stated my friend confidently. And it's true that Judy Collins has written some books, one about recovering from her son's suicide, but she is more of a musician, starting out playing Mozart as a child but then she became famous as a folk singer and moved on from there. But no, she didn't write best-selling novels in the 1980s.

What she did to orient the audience to who she is was sing parts of songs acapella. She'd be talking about something, and then burst into song, and it was beautiful. It wasn't perfect, but it was beautiful. It wasn't until 3/4 through her talk, when she sang a bit from "Send in the Clowns" that my friend finally remembered hearing of Judy Collins.

One thing I thought was interesting was that photographs weren't forbidden, but I turned off my flash and had my camera on silent so as not to be disruptive.



Are you wondering what Judy Collins had to say about her alcohol addiction? She grew up in a drinking Irish family, started drinking at home when she was 13. Drinking was a given in her family, she said they figured anyone who didn't drink probably didn't read, either. The way she told it she never had to work hard for success, it just came; fame and fortune just happened. She didn't drink because her life was rough, she drank because everyone else did, and there was no reason why not to. She sobered up when she was 39 years old.

Her son also struggled with addictions including alcohol and heroin, and he got straightened out, married and had a family, but then one day he just gave up and killed himself via carbon monoxide poisoning in a closed garage. She was all ready to withdraw from the world and mourn her loss but Joan Rivers, of all people, called her up and told her she can't do that, she must go on living her life. I can almost hear Joan Rivers's crackly voice saying that.

The best part was the bits of songs that Judy Collins sang, beautiful, sad Irish ballads, segments from her hits, and songs that she wrote.