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Shortly after I finished college our house was repossessed by the bank and the family scattered to the four winds, with my mother going off to the UK to live close to her sister.
Some time later I had a call from my aunt telling me my mother had broken her hip after tumbling down the stairs drunk and the doctors were warning her that if she didn't stop drinking she'd be dead in 6 months. "You have to talk to her" my aunt insisted, "You're the only one she'll listen to," and despite my protestations that I was probably the last one, I was guilted into travelling the however many miles to the UK to persuade her that sobriety was her only alternative to imminent death.
I remember how she looked at me as I implored her to save her life and how she replied, as she had done so many times before, "I don't drink."
I never saw her again and she died a year or so later in some slummy apartment with fruit crates for furniture.
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Posted in response to @mariannewest's five-minute freewrite
The prompt is 'how many miles'
The image is my own
So sad... gripping ... well-written ... if this is non-fiction, my condolences to you...
Thank you kindly. It is true but it's a very long time ago.
So sad to hear about that, I can feel your emotions and sadness through this post.
Many thanks for reading. I did try to rein in the emotion, but it must have got loose:)
Tough times Deridy, tough times, I find myself time to be a healer, but others would not agree. I do hope the passage of time has helped you and those memories are not too difficult. Thanks for sharing, I always enjoy your writing whether real-life or fiction, although I do have a critique if you don't mind. I'd like more of them! You're a great writer and definitely have an audience on here. Mind yourself.
Right back at ya, I always enjoy your posts, even the ones with the lighthouse:)
As to time being a healer, I agree. At this remove, it seems almost like these things happened to someone else.
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Ya that's how I see certain things as well.
What do I say to such a post?
All I can think of saying is, you made it. You won whatever it is we're trying for in life. At least up until this point. I have full confidence you will continue to win.
I won't speak about the craft of your writing, but about the sharp honesty. It is brutal and powerful. Also quite refreshing.
Thanks for that! You seem always to have just the right words. Fate has been kind if a tad erratic and I've probably been more fortunate than my oft-poor judgment warrants.
It must have been hard for you to hear your mom's continuous denial. Such a sad story.
I suppose at the time I felt more frustration than sorrow but it is sad when someone just doesn't love themselves enough to even try to save their own life.
Many thanks for the visit.
I can imagine especially as it was your mom. 🤗
Oh so sad to read this emotional story. Whenever someone leaves us, a person becomes very sad and starts to worry a lot.
Many thanks for your comment. I appreciate the support.
Most welcome dear.
Sounds so much like my family! Drink - the great destroyer of families and so much more. I'm sorry you had to go through this, and all the stuff that probably happened for the 20-some years before. I know you don't drink heavily if at all, but do you have siblings who do, or did? I have my troubles with the stuff, and have four siblings who do, too.
Sorry to hear that. It seems that dysfunctional families are the rule, happy ones the exception, and drink so often a contributing factor. I've never had an alcoholic drink nor have either of my two siblings, but so often the opposite is the case.
Now a word about the illustration:
😂🤣😂
Ah sure you're a woman after me own heart and no mistake. I saw that flyer in Dublin a few years ago and had to run home, get a camera and go back to get a picture.