Drying Out

     The second time around, my mother found a drinking partner and married him. Their drinking was not the usual. They got blasted off-the-wall drunk. 

     The family doctor was an alcoholic too. When my step-grandfather died, the doc showed up at the funeral home drunk. Very drunk. And the family said, "Oh he's drunk. Look how much he [the doctor] loved him [dead step-grandfather]."

     It came to pass that my step-father needed a few days in the hospital in order to dry out. In those days, people were not admitted for alcohol withdrawal. The alcoholic family doctor arranged for my step-father's hospitalization under the guise of "heart problems." Step-father dried out and returned home to continue drinking in the manner that he had been drinking. Being an active drunk himself, the family doctor thought this was just fine.

     Years later in a classroom, I asked "An alcoholic can go to the hospital, dry out, and then drink again?" That was the first time that I was told that an alcoholic cannot drink safely.

sapphoq on life