Walking the red road: A Tk’emlúps elder reflects on her 45-year sobriety journey
TK’EMLÚPS TE SECWÉPEMC — At 82 years old, Charlotte Manuel begins every morning with a smudge. Maintaining that practice is part of how she’s been able to reach 45 years of sobriety, a milestone she will reach on Saturday (Apr. 20).
“First thing when I get up in the morning, I smudge, I say my prayers — ‘Thank-you for another day of living and sobriety.’ I take the smudge, go through and sometimes I go out and sit on the porch and drum away,” she explains. “Sometimes I just go out there and look at the trees, listen to what’s out there.”
Now a Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc elder and knowledge keeper, Manuel’s recovery path began with a visit to an Al-Anon meeting. Eventually, she attended AA meetings and other sobriety programs, including the Round Lake Treatment Centre. Manuel says her aunt drove her to that first stay at Round Lake and encouraged her to stick with it.