This is a true accounting of a woman who gave her life to alcohol.
Kat was a smallish woman — maybe 105 pounds, tops, and about five feet two.
Kat was funny as all get-out — when she was sober. She had the sense of humor of a gifted comedienne. However, she was infrequently sober, regrettably.
I got to know her through our sons’ Little League games. Kat would deliver her boy to the game around 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings, and she was already half-snockered.
What a sad and pathetic sight to behold. Mostly, I felt for her sweet son. This 8-year-old now had to do his best to play a game, knowing that others witnessed his mother’s drunken behavior.
Her fiance’ was the coach of our sons’ team. He and I got to know one another as the boys became friends.
Don asked me if I could find a place in my business for Kat as she desperately needed a job.
I agreed with the stipulation that she would be immediately terminated if she ever arrived drunk to work.
Kat worked for about one month and was doing okay though I could tell most days she was hungover.
One day in the middle of our conversation, she had a seizure. Paramedics arrived, and Kat was resuscitated and taken to the hospital for examination.
Earlier that morning, when I noticed she seemed particularly out of sorts, she confided that she drank an entire bottle of vodka the previous night and was feeling especially ill.
I was drinking in those days as well but only indulged in one glass of wine on weeknights as I knew I had to be sharp for work the next day.
For the life of me, I could not fathom how someone could be so addicted to the drink that they would consume an entire bottle.
I had to let her go. She would have to find another job. I could not allow this type of behavior from an employee.
Over the next several years, Kat lost custody of her two children. This forced her to enter rehabilitation.
Shortly after a “successful” rehab, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
As we know, alcohol can contribute to many cancers, including breast.
Kat wanted to marry Don. He wanted to marry Kat, however, with the condition that she must remain sober for one year before the ceremony.
He did not want to marry a drunk. He had had enough painful, intoxicated years with her and set his boundary.
* * *
She made it through that year — sober and healthier and managing through a mastectomy.
Don and Kat married. At the wedding reception, Kat decided she could have a glass of champagne in celebration.
That was the start of a year of addiction once again.
Tragically, by year’s end, Kat was dead.
She left behind two inconsolable children and a husband who was devasted and broken.
No one could help Kat though they did everything to try and save her.
Did Kat want to be saved? Were her demons stronger than her will to stay sober? What pain had she endured that she was unable to overcome?
What do some of us possess that we know we must quit or our lives would be wasted?
I know I felt that I had already squandered way too many years of drinking and the aftermath — feeling unwell the following day.
There was no way I wanted to miss my life. I had to stop the imbibing.
Was it possible Kat’s addiction went way beyond what we lived with?
Her children were still young. Her husband adored her.
She had so many reasons to want to stay away from the drink.
No, alcohol wasn’t listed as the cause of her demise on the death certificate, yet it certainly was a major contributing factor.
Perhaps if she did not overdrink, she could have escaped the horrible disease of cancer?
These heartbreaking questions will always remain unanswered.
Thank goodness for those of us who have conquered the insidious illness of alcoholism.
We must be ever conscious each day of how blessed were are to have the strength to say no to alcohol.
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