Betty Ford Stayed Here

As we remember the late First Lady Betty Ford this week, it's interesting to note an important Long Beach connection. Though she eventually went on to found the world famous substance abuse center that bears her name, when she needed to recover from alcoholism and addiction to pills in 1978, she had to admit herself to Long Beach Naval Hospital. 

Quoting the Christian Science Monitor: 
"Mrs. Ford entered Long Beach Naval Hospital and, alongside alcoholic young sailors and officers, underwent a grim detoxification that became the model for therapy at the Betty Ford Center. In her book "A Glad Awakening," she described her recovery as a second chance at life. And in that second chance, she found a new purpose."
And this from columnist Pat O'Brien of The Morton Report:

"When Mrs. Ford checked into the Long Beach Naval Hospital for addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs, they showed her her new home. It was a small room and it had four beds. Mrs. Ford explained to them that there was just no way she would stay THERE because, after all, she was the First Lady of the Untied States. No, they explained, when you are here you are like everybody else, and this is your room.

"Four years later, when she opened the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, she insisted that each dorm have a 'four bed room.' Most of the rooms are for two people… but the one nobody ever wanted to be in is that one with the four beds. That’s three roommates. Strangers. For at least 30 days. It’s not exactly the ideal condition anybody would invite, but that’s the way Mrs. Ford wanted it and that’s the way it is to this day. And you learn very quickly that recovery is not about comfort, but about changing your habits. It’s about learning structure. It’s about humility. The way Mrs. Ford got sober herself."