Family Meeting at Sequoia

We went to a family/Al Anon type meeting at the Sequoia Center.  It was a coed meeting that was full of young people. 

When it was my turn to talk, I suddenly felt the urge to start crying.   It happened to quite a few people.

“I am really afraid that this is Mom’s last chance for sobriety because she has dried out so many times and is in her late sixties,” I mumbled through my sobs. “The older you get, the harder the habits are to break.  I am also afraid she is in denial and isn’t aware of the extent of her disease. I think she’s drying out because we want her to, not because she wants to.”

When we met privately with her counselor, Mom expressed an interest in getting sober and possibly staying in California.

Staying in California would be key to Mom’s sobriety. Vermont just had too many memories for her.  She needed a fresh start that had an identity all its own. California could offer her that, especially Northern California.

She finally got sober in 2005 and was sober again until October 30, 2010.

I was trained to never talk about her drinking and I did my best to not talk about it. Evidently, she did confess to Alice that she knew that drinking was no longer an option for her, if she wanted to survive. 

Mom seemed to be much closer to Alice than she was to me and I accept that.