Up against the wall

Sobriety is underrated (27)

When your daughter asks for her bedtime story I'm going to tell her the story of a brave man who went off to fight a fearsome beast but never came back. I know that many things seem to be fun and games and you'll cut it all out when the time comes... but what if you cant. What happens when I walk into the bathroom of the home that you share with your daughter to find you had battled the needle in your arm again but this time you didn't make it out alive?

The mother already killed herself because of an addiction half a year earlier leaving you with a one-year-old child... now without a father as well. What am I gonna say to her in 12 years when she sits in the car that her father and I spent so many nights in singing at the wheel and the glass in front of us. What am I gonna say to her when she tells me that she wants to go to a party and I say no because like hell I'm letting that girl end up in the same state you did. Funny thing is I know you'd thank me for it.

Tell me, what am I gonna say to her when she starts to question why I've given her the 'don't do drugs talk' at least 3 times every week for the last 16 years of her life.

What the bloody hell am I gonna say when she realizes that her father was an addict and he died of an overdose.

What am I gonna say when she finds out that I'm not her mother... that I'm not even a blood relative but rather an old family friend.

What's she gonna think, when at the age of 27 and 3 weeks she realizes that she outlived her dad.

But none of that's gonna happen, and you know why? Because I'm gonna be with you every step of the way on YOUR journey of complete sobriety. You're gonna be free of that chokehold. I'll be with you when you're coming down from a relapse and ill be with you when you celebrate one year. I'll be with you when you think its gonna be easier to just deal with this demon for life. I'll be sitting at your graduation ceremony looking at the man you became despite everything you faced. I'll be there for 10 years sober, 20 years, 50 years and on. I'll be there for your wedding and ill be there to babysit when the time comes.

But there is one major thing in all of this that I can't control, and that is you making the choice to get clean. I'll always support you, but it's your choice whether I walk through those doors to babysit, or to find a child that ill eventually have to tell the truth to.

That her father was a great man but there was one thing that he couldn't fight;

The needle.

-XxSaint