Those were the first words that I heard this weekend. My husband arrived from work at 6:30 in the morning and the first words to leave his lips were “Chris is dead…” The deep breath that followed held years of sorrow at the world. The second set of words floored me. “They sat at the Hooters and said they missed him as they downed beer and toasted him.”

My husband met Chris at UPS and both were drivers. They started at the same time, drove trucks, and Chris was a newly wed. His wife was beautiful. But where there was so m Iuch potential, there was a dark secret that would destroy his life. We didn’t understand how Chris could let his lovely wife go, but go she did with the alcohol chasing her out the door. Chris hid the booze, or tried too. My husband saw all of the symptoms and tried to give support, but Chris drifted away.

It was the alcohol that killed him. They say that only thirty percent of alcoholics find their way to sobriety. A lot of them lose their families, friends, jobs, careers and end up in trouble of some sort with the law. Chris hid his by hanging out with a crowd who spent all of their off hours drinking together.

Sadly, Chris was in his mid-forties, looked older than my husband does at 58, and at the end, alone. If you have a friend with a drinking problem, please, don’t buy them a drink. Encourage them to get help. Chris could have gotten help through the programs at UPS, but somehow, he never did. If you have a problem with alcohol, there is hope. Find an AA meeting, go through an Employee Assistance Program, use your insurance, but please, it is a matter of life or death.