Meet the author
Phil D
Phil D was born in 1950 and raised in the well-known Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh. His legacy was to become a pharmacist and one day take over the family drugstore started by his grandfather, father and uncle. Instead came years of addiction — and the people who refused to give up on him.
December 24, 1979 was the last time he used a drug. Over the decades
since, he has brought NA meetings into hospitals and treatment facilities,
helped start the first Dade County NA helpline, and spoke at NA’s 37th world convention in Orlando in 2018. He has worked as a treatment aid and mentor, is a Certified Recovery Specialist, ran a weekly recovery group in a corrections-based program, and today sits on the board of directors of a nonprofit treatment program.
Why he wrote it
Poetry was never part of his life growing up. About fifteen years ago a verse “came out of nowhere,” the verses kept coming, and friends in recovery urged him to write a book. His goal was never financial gain — only to help people who struggle with the same concepts he did.
We come here to get — then we get to give — when we stop giving, we stop getting.”