« Read Other Stories

Two Lives Turned Around

Bettye Jo Martin and Robert Bell both credit MARR (Metropolitan Atlanta Recovery Residences) with saving their lives. Bell and Martin are recovering alcoholics—professionals who sought out MARR when alcohol addiction nearly drove them to destruction.

Funded in part by the Hanley Family Foundation, MARR is a long-term residential treatment center for men and women who suffer from alcohol and drug addiction. The program emphasizes spirituality and faith as key to recovery. Clients reside in apartments and homes as they begin the process of change and growth. After the first 30 days of an intensive day program, clients re-enter the work force, while maintaining the structure and support of their recovery community.

Robert Bell, 50, was working for a church when he overdosed on drugs in 2001. He had been abusing drugs and alcohol since his teens. The overdose forced him to admit he needed help. He entered the MARR program, where he lived in community with other recovering addicts, learned to practice a 12-step program and participated in daily group therapy. "By going to treatment," explains Bell, "I was finally able to look thoroughly and comprehensively at the fact that I was slowly killing myself."

Now sober for four years, Bell is a caseworker for people diagnosed with mental health disabilities. His life is "better and richer than before," he maintains, despite some personal tragedies—including the loss of his only son at age 15 in 2002. Bell says that his sobriety "has let me be useful within my family, the recovery community, my church, and MARR" because he has been able to "share the story of being sober—even through the death of loved ones" with recovering addicts and others seeking hope. Bell also credits MARR with saving his 23-year marriage.

Bettye Jo Martin echoes Bell’s enthusiasm. MARR, she says, has "totally turned my life around." Martin, a retired teacher, realized that she had an alcohol problem when she was diagnosed with cancer. While undergoing chemotherapy, she continued drinking—producing a toxic mix that nearly killed her. Martin was in a detox program when she learned about MARR. She entered the program in September 2003.

Sober since then, Martin says she is not the same person she used to be. "I don’t worry about the future anymore. I live one day at a time. At MARR, you learn to turn your will over to God and to accept His will for your life." Today Martin is still very much involved in MARR. She teaches a six-week course on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous to MARR participants in their first phase of treatment, and she’s working toward a master’s degree in professional counseling.