Originally Posted by
bigsombrero 
I just got an e-mail from my mother - I was discharged from my rehab facility one year ago today. The stay in rehab ended with a "family week", where my parents (divorced long ago) and sister came and met with the counselor and also myself, in a supervised setting. I didn't want to make a big deal of things and was nervous about it. Who wants to sit with their family and discuss issues and listen to lectures together? Aaaagh!
But by golly they showed up. My father flew up to the northern US from Florida for it. My sister took time off work for it. My mom came too. And you know what? It meant the world to me. They were trying. When they showed up, it showed that they were on my team. They loved me. They were doing work, so that they could help me. They were accepting me. And if they were doing all this for me, then by God I owed it to them to give sobriety my best shot. Not just for me, but for them. I am over 1 year sober now and haven't drank. I have often said "my family saved my life". Their love for me was the one rock after I'd lost everything. They showed up for family week and didn't ditch, even though they had excuses.
I am very happy and will be forever touched that they showed up for that program.
Bigsombrero,
I appreciate your post but it kind of rocked my world.
When you say you "owed it to them to give sobriety a shot.", it almost sounds like you got sober for them. As codies we are told over and over that the A has to get sober for himself? Is this not true in your experience?
This is hard stuff to hear for a codie. It makes me think if I had just loved a little more, I could have saved him.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is helpful to hear from the other side.