Drug Addiction Stories & Info

I looked at the clock. It was just after 2 in the afternoon. I checked my cell phone which was on silent. It was still December. Two more days. I had to get through two more days before January 1. I could do it. I saw I had six missed calls and four voicemails as well nine text messages. I ignored them all, went to the kitchen, grabbed an unopened bottle of Jack and went back to bed. 

Co-workers and neighbors had invited me to holiday gatherings but I had declined. Now they were probably inviting me to New Year’s Eve parties that I would again say no to. I just wanted to be left alone I thought to myself as I dozed off again.

Sometime during the night I heard a pounding on the door. I struggled to get up and grumbled my way to the front door. It was my elderly neighbor, standing there clutching her walker with her husband beside her. The apartment building was on fire and they had taken the time to get me up. They knew I was an alcoholic. Her husband told me she would not leave until they got me up.

The next day I checked into rehab. As I told my story to my counselor and the support group I became a part of, I could not help but cry. To this day, I still cry when I think about my elderly neighbor who insisted I get up when we had a fire.

That was four years ago. The neighbor I credit for saving my life , my hero who had a walker, passed away a couple of months ago. I will be attending a non-alcoholic party with friends this weekend as we celebrate the new year. I will raise a non-alcoholic toast to that wonderful and brave woman who cared about an alcoholic middle-aged woman with no family who lived next door to her. After rehab I moved into the exra bedroom at the new complex she lived in with her husband as I had lost everything in the fire along with so many other residents.  She and her husband  told me many times that they had looked on me as the daughter they never had.

It was a gift that I could help take care of her towards the end of her life. Her husband now lives with their son and his family one state over. The two of them gave me a gift that night four years ago. I go to visit her from time to time to pay my respects. Because of her I have many new memories to make and a whole new life ahead of me.