Driving to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset every week to talk with inmates about their substance addictions doesn't sound like a selfish thing to do.

But it is partly selfish, Bob Hargreaves said. The 76-year-old, retired Episcopal priest is a recovered addict himself, for both alcohol and prescription drugs. Sharing a message of hope helps keep him on track, he said. “It's the biggest reason I'm strong and happy in my recovery.”

When he says he's recovered, he means he's recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body. He knows a relapse is possible; he's had them before, but not since he's started working with inmates battling their own addictions.

“This is the best thing I've ever done,” the Jefferson man said of his volunteer work at the jail. “If I were to stop doing that stuff, gradually I would lose my recovery.”

He leads classes and then returns another day to meet one-on-one with participants who ask.

Hargreaves' own journey through addiction and recovery started in his thirties, when he would drink if he was anxious or depressed. Before then, he was an average drinker, he said.

Eventually, he was hiding bottles under the seat of his car and wherever else he could.

After friends confronted him he stopped drinking for a while, but became irritable. One of his parishioners in Rhode Island even told him she liked him better when he was drinking.

Hargreaves repeatedly moved in and out of sobriety from alcohol and prescription drug abuse, another way he self-medicated his depression. He was also in and out of treatment, even leaving his parish work to get more treatment; but it still didn't stick.

In the summer of 2000, he was drinking morning, noon and night.

After he had a car accident while driving north on Route 1 in Wiscasset, he admitted to police he was drunk.

He was arrested and spent the night in the former Lincoln County Jail.

“It was a huge awakening. I recognized how helpless I was,” he said. He got on his knees and prayed in his cell.

“I had to find a solution or I was going to commit suicide,” he said.

But just two days after his arrest for operating under the influence, Hargreaves drank again. He could see the insanity of it, he said. Afraid he would only relapse again and again, he turned to some audio tapes that spoke of the role helping others has in recovery.

“I said, 'I've had the solution in my hands the whole time and I never even knew it,'” he said.

He took up meeting with jail inmates, first at the same jail where he'd spent the night of his arrest, and then at Two Bridges after it opened.

His last drink was on October 26, 2000.

He's retired from parish work but continues to fill in for priests taking time off.

Instead of tasting the wine during communion, he kisses the side of the chalice.

He occasionally hears from former inmates who have been through his classes at the jail.

Help from Hargreaves made a world of difference for Chelsea Pottle, 22, of Southport. She was addicted to heroine and opiates and had been jailed about nine times before she hit rock bottom and was ready to listen to Hargreaves at Two Bridges, Pottle said.

“We could talk in depth, and he really listened,” Pottle said. “It was extremely helpful to me.”

Today, she's been clean a year and a half, has a 10-month-old son and works at a Portland law office.

At times, Hargreaves hears sad news, however. He recently heard from a former inmate's girlfriend. The man is back to drinking. Hargreaves hopes the man will decide to reach out.

“I can't go chasing someone, but I will not give up on them,” he said.

Hargreaves, who also is a prostate cancer survivor, doesn't know how the majority of inmates he's met are faring back on the outside.

“I'm planting seeds, and I don't necessarily see the harvest,” he said. “I don't need to. I can't control the outcome. I'm there to give the message and help if I'm able.”

“It's the greatest privilege in the world to be able to sit down with people and give them hope.”

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.