When It All Came Crashing Down, Part II

Being away at college, I had learned of my father’s passing when my family phoned with the alarming news. In the aftermath of that sobering call, I had so many questions. What had happened to my father? Was it accidental? Was he alone? And a hundred others.

 

When It All Came Crashing Down, Part I

I have shared insights with you about my youth, adolescence, and early adulthood. You’ve read along, as I told you how my father’s alcoholism and drug abuse wasted away his life and my childhood. We walked together through this journey, and the whole time you’ve never been clued in to what happened on that fateful day.

 

Thirteen Days of Battling Sobriety

Thirteen of my father’s journal entries, abbreviated to emphasize the central message in each one. You’ll hear his sarcastic wit, boredom, and longing for love and acceptance. You’ll  share in his daily battle to find hope and optimism. You’ll experience his ongoing search for answers. You’ll see that the distrust from his wayward ways was something we didn’t just harbor at home; his unearthed reputation followed him wherever he went.

And finally, you’ll hear the defeated attempt in his voice, his last-ditch effort to get better while facing an uphill battle that would slowly inch him back down. It was as if he felt all along that things may not get better, ever.

 

A Retelling of the Day I’ll Never Forget

I have told accounts of my father’s ability to single-handedly foil Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. While presents were always under the tree, eggs hidden, and money under our pillows, their intended joy was usually staved off by my dad’s usual antics: a drunken tirade or foolish act causing an embarrassingly new low for the family.

 

Confessions of an Alcoholic

Critics have been especially — well — critical of the movie When a Man Loves a Woman and, despite his Oscar nomination, Denzel Washington’s Flight. Those are two of my favorite movies, not for some praiseworthy contribution to cinematic history but for their ability to pit alcoholic versus alcohol, for their accurate portrayal of addicts constantly haunted by a liquid that gives them both pleasure and pain, both freedom and captivity.