October 24 post
Thank God I didn't have to drink this week. In the old days, I would have been drinking steady every night. You see, I lost a dear friend last week. My brother-in-law died in a plane crash last Friday. He was a pilot, flying volunteer doctors to a clinic in Baja California. He took off from Ensenada headed south in thick fog and something went wrong.
He was more of a brother than a brother-in-law. A wonderful human being, full of life, he was one of the happiest people I know. He died doing something he dearly loved: flying.
Life will never be the same. I haven't completely accepted that he is gone. Going to a memorial yesterday for a plastic surgeon who also was lost in the crash made it seem a lot more real, but it hasn't fully sunk in.
But I didn't have to drink. I can really be there for my wife (his sister), his wife, his mother, and his two fine sons. I can hug them and cry with them and remember funny stories with them. I can heal with them. Sober.
What a blessing!
