My Niece
As some of you may be aware, my favorite niece went to rehab shortly before Christmas for alcoholism. I managed to visit her at her treatment center on my trip down south during Christmas, but I've been largely out of that loop since returning home.
The only thing I've done since returning home is make sure, through my nephew, she has my contact information. Aside from that, my approach to this has been hands off.
Well, she texted me this past week. She let me know she was out of rehab, and she was reading a book I had recommended to her while she was in. She was doing OK. I simply told her she was in my thoughts and I was there for her. She responded by saying she really appreciated that and she loved me very much.
As time's gone on for me and I've learned more about addiction and alcoholism, I've become very aware of how these things can go. A lot of times people get out of rehab and they simply pick up where they left off, which is awful. My mentor was like that; after his death, his wife told me after he spent 30 days in Betty Ford, he came home and hit the bottle immediately. Less than a year later, he was dead. But sometimes people commit to doing whatever is necessary to stay on the path to recovery.
I have no idea what my niece is going to do. Long term, I'm cautiously hopeful for her. Short term, I'm worried. But knowing what I know, I've detached from what's going on down there. If she drinks, she drinks, and there's nothing me or anyone can do about that. With that said, the day I got home from my trip down there, I fished out her senior picture and put it in my wallet. It's a prayer of sorts. It's my way of carrying her.
What I told her before I left for home was she's got a vulnerability, one she has to guard and protect for the rest of her life. There's no days off from that. There's no room for dishonesty, no room for denial. It's going to be a tough road for her. But, as they say, it is what it is.