Mary and I met in my early years of teaching. We became great party buddies. We snorted and drank to our hearts' content!
I know one morning (I always slept over if I drank, which was every weekend....), I found the top left off our whiskey, so I was replacing it and she gave me a lecture on not drinking in the morning (I hadn't, I did sniff the top, though) because she would think I was alcoholic. (insert laughter here)
I was looking for my good friend, my ol' party buddy, Mary in my early recovery days. She was kind of missing and I was newly sober. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I found her obituary (I researched and couldn't find it previously).
I don't usually get to noon meetings, but I had been to the doctor's, so no work that day in March, right before the lockdown, a few days after I found the obituary, I ran into another old party buddy, this gal knew Mary. She let me know that Mary died from her alcoholism.
I was getting sober while my best party buddy (and good friend, excellent special education teacher) was in the hospital dying from alcohol.
Mary's been gone 9 years, one month and one day after I got sober, she died. Alcohol shut her organs down.
What's your choice? Try a sober life or die a slow and painful alcoholic death?