Man pursues dual passions: Restoring cars and helping people in recovery

DRIVING YOUNG PEOPLE IN OLD CARS TO MEETINGS? –

June 30, 2021 – He was fortunate that he has no lasting health or legal repercussions from those years, though he had terrible credit for a while, and he has four kids by four different women (he only has a relationship with one of his children, he said).

“I was in that cycle for 30 years,” he said. “I’m an idiot. Actually, I’m hard-headed.”

But periodically over those years, Sewell was in recovery and became familiar with recovery houses, which is the more professional term for homes (many privately owned) where those in recovery live under various degrees of supervision before fully rejoining the world. Toward the end of that period, in 2010, as he slowly was pulling his life together, he started his car-repair business. He had started tinkering with restoring old cars when he was 15.

“When you get off the alcohol and drugs, there’s a void,” Sewell said. “I fill it with spiritual content, but I also go back to my roots. I had three tries in treatment, and my longest stretches of sobriety came when I was working on cars.”