My brother was sober for 8 glorious months. Then he got in touch with some old 'friends' and started to drink again. His pain and sorrow ended today. He died at 53 of liver failure. I love him and miss him, but pray that he has finally found peace. My prayers go out to all who battle this monster called addiction.

I've been working for a couple of months with sane people! What a change for me.
My brother showed me his 6 month sober coin last weekend. I'm so proud of him. He is cognizant and intelligent. He made it through all of this with obvious grace of God. He's not working yet, but he is going to AA and Micah and doing very well. His objectives are realistic and I hope within the year he'll be well on his way to lasting sobriety. It's wonderful having my brother back.

I had a conversation with Bro today. No repeating stories. Things made sense. He told me about his councilor, his AA meetings, his Micah meetings, joked about being an addict and an alcoholic, humbly shared getting his 60 day pin, told me about his transportation to his meetings, and told me how he now understood this was going to be a life-long struggle. Very nice to hear. Relieved my fears immensely! He's working to get his license back so he can begin to look for work again to rebuild his life....

Bro has completed one week in treatment. It's sure a start. I hope to be able to speak to him tomorrow and give encouragement.
Meanwhile I lost my job. I was full time and replaced with two part timers-neither making as much as me. Both people I know. They are frustrated because the owner keeps telling them I was so much better than them and they are puzzling why I'm gone in that case. I think this is a blessing though. The owner is SO HARD to deal with. She cannot be happy. It is beyond...

Well, bro goes in Wednesday. He told them originally that same old story of being sober for 6 months (it's always that and/or someone slipped something into his drink) and they thought he could be outpatient. When I called to get him in faster after he ended up in the hospital again a couple of weeks ago, apparently they made a change because they told him he would be in-patient for two weeks. They realize now he'll have to go through detox AGAIN. I hear this gets harder on the body each time? At...