Well, my wife went away for the weekend...

[Random Boomer]

42. My ex came from a family of alcoholics

My ex hated that her mother was an alcoholic and recognized the incredible stress it placed on the family. As the oldest child, she bore the brunt of dealing with her mother drunk, passed out, and her father's anger at being married to a woman who couldn't meet the social expectations of a corporate executive's wife.

With all this history, my ex vowed she would NEVER become an alcoholic like her mom, that she knew all the danger signs and she'd stop drinking before it was a problem.

Right....

Unfortunately, alcoholism is sneaky. She couldn't admit she had a problem and she didn't stop drinking until she landed in the hospital with liver failure. By the time she dried out and got sober, our relationship was ruined.

I'm glad she was finally able to stop drinking and that she stayed sober until her death a decade later. But she never really recovered emotionally. She was still making excuses for the drunken abuse that destroyed our partnership, still blaming me for leaving her. Somewhere underneath the self-absorbed bluster and arrogance was a warm, funny, loving person -- the person I first met. She lost her way, which still grieves me.