Replies to '08/14 Hitting Rock Bottom'

This sounds like a very sad situation and I feel for your children. My father was not an alcoholic but worked out of town due to the profession that he was in. This story reminded me of when he too died suddenly from a massive heart attack at the age of 47. He had just arrived back in Fort Collins Co. the very day he died. My brother was with him and they were traveling back to where my father worked and my brother was supposed to go on to South Dakota to the Air Force Base where he was stationed. They had both just spent two weeks at home for Christmas. Anyway, they had just arrived that morning and my father was showing him the golf course that he was building when he died. My brother and one of my older sisters had to fly back to Co. to pack up my dads place and drive his pickups back home to Calif.. That is very difficult for any child to go through. Plus they were still fairly young at the time, just past 20 or so. It's heartbreaking!

I can't imagine how it must have felt for you and your children to know that he hadn't been found for 4 days. It a shame what alcohol can do. But I have to state one thing that I feel is incorrect. It really isn't the worst death that anyone can go through. It's definitely a difficult and heartbreaking way, and the misery along the way is extremely sad. Again, my heart goes out to all of your family and I hope they are able to on get with their lives and recover from the anger that they feel.

My father passed away when I was 12 due to complications from alcoholism. He cut his leg and got an infection that spread throughout his body, to make matters worse he was diabetic and never once took care of it. My family still hates him because he drank and abused my mother.  I'm more angry at the medical negligence that killed my mother when I was 13 or the fact my dads family didn't tell us right away when he passed away, (he had moved out of state) I read it in the obituaries when I was 12 that makes me angry. That's a shock a child shouldn't have to find.

I am 46 now and I  have never been angry at my Dad because I knew it was the alcohol, and as I have gotten older I wish I was able to really get to know him and love him.  Folks that knew him said he was a carefree happy person until he was in the war and when he came back he was totally different. My brothers and sisters still have alot resentment towards him and I ask why? First he's gone and second everyone is born good and I know my dad was a good person. I wish back then there were more programs to help alcoholics because maybe just maybe I might have gotten to get to know the man that alcohol took away. If I sit here angry it will only make me stressed. Please try to remember they aren't really trying to hurt the family, it's themselves they are hurting because I believe and this is my opinion that there is something in their reality they are escaping.

I do regret not having the family memories of my father like I do of my mom because the alcohol took him away from the family. When my folks divorced when I was 10 my dad did come see us on weekends and took us to work when he had to work. He gave me a heart necklace that I cherished but sadly I either lost it or it was stolen. My dad couldn't have been all bad to try and see us after they divorced.

So please don't be angry, it's such a wasted emotion and can make you sick.