NEW YORK, March 14, 2006
From Torment To Triumph: Cupcake Brown
Memoir Tells Of Abuse, Addiction And Recovery
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Play CBS Video Video Chronicles Of Cupcake Brown Cupcake Brown not only has quite a name, but also a remarkable story. In her memoir, "A Piece Of Cake," Cupcake chronicles how she rebounded from the darkest parts of her life.
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Author and attorney Cupcake Brown (CBS/The Early Show)
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(Crown Publishing Group)
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Interactive Substance Abuse In America Get the facts on a national problem. Find out where to get help, learn how drugs affect the body and compare state drunk-driving laws.
"She was absent a lot," said Rose, "and I really felt I might have to terminate her employment."
It was when she saw her reflection in a window one day, after a four-day crack binge, that Brown knew this life was over.
"For the first time I really, really saw myself," she told Price. "My eyes were sunken in my face. My lips were scabbed and burnt from the crack pipe … and I knew then that I was dying. And it was then that I realized that I didn't want to die like that. And that was the beginning of the beginning."
With Rose's support, she kept her job and went into rehab, where she met a sponsor who inspired her to reach for more.
"She said, 'What is a dream you had that drugs and alcohol stole from you?' " Brown said. " 'I want to be a lawyer.' And she said, 'Well, steal it back.' And I thought, 'Steal it back?' And she said, 'Yeah, steal it back.' And I said, 'Well, how am I going to steal it back?' And she said, 'Well, Cup, how do people become lawyers? They go to school.' "
Brown spent the next 11½ years in college and then law school, graduating in the top 10 percent of her class.
"I think everybody was shocked, including me, when I ended up in the top 10 percent. At the same time, I worked my butt off for that," she said.
David Balabanian's San Francisco law firm hired Brown and he became her mentor.
"What impressed me at the time was her extraordinary good cheer, enthusiasm, energy," Balabanian said. "I was completely unaware of her background and what she had been through prior to getting to law school."
At 41, and now a fifth year associate at one of the nation's top law firms, Cupcake Brown is taking inventory of her life and considers what her mother would say if she could see her now.
"I think she would say what I think God says, 'Well done, my child.' "
Brown is taking four months off for a book tour and a vacation, her first in more than a decade, and then she intends to return to her work as an attorney.
To read an excerpt from Brown's memoir, "A Piece of Cake," click here.
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