I read this forum and post once every blue moon or so. Mostly I stick in the FFSA forum; I'm the mom of a 23 year old recovering addict.
My stepmother, after 2 1/2 years of hard earned sobriety and coming back from the brink of death twice, has relapsed. She and I had been playing phone tag for two weeks and we connected today for about 2 minutes. She sounded odd and I was worried about her health, drinking never even crossed my mind. She's been doing so well, seemed very happy, got her life back together and was working again, etc.
She stopped talking in mid sentence today, then the phone went dead after about a minute. I called her oldest son and he headed over to check on her (I live a couple of states away and my dad died almost 6 years ago). He found several vodka bottles and told her to go to bed after she got nasty with him. He took care of the dogs and I could tell he'd been crying when he called me back.
We're so sad and disappointed. We're a little fearful too. She was able to clean up all the destruction from her alcoholism because of inheritance from my dad's estate. There's still a little nest egg and she might very well blow through it, but there's more inheritance coming. Normal consequences like losing your job and not being able to pay the bills don't apply here, and she lives on her own. Hitting a tree is what stopped her before. No one enables her, and they didn't before. Her kids all have their own families and simply can't.
Her son did take her keys because we all know she'll drive while under the influence. He said he couldn't live with himself if he didn't and she killed someone. Whenever she wakes up she'll have to choose if/how she's going to deal with her job, her kids, and her sponsor, if she goes back to her meetings. Her son called her sponsor and told her, because stepmom is the treasurer.
She and my RAD have a special bond, both of them working recovery programs at the same time. I haven't told my daughter and don't know if or when I will. A part of me knows how upset she'll be and I'm not ready to be the bearer of bad news. It was hard enough talking with her son.
I know that I'm powerless and it sucks
