One of my friends took his life this past Sunday. He had relapsed just a few days before, and his wife had threatened to leave him.

When I saw him at the meeting last week, he was subdued, lifeless, and very sad. He said that he felt so hopeless.

He shared in the meeting that when his wife went out of town to check on her dad, she mentioned that she had hidden a bottle of liquor in the house.  She wasn't an alcoholic.

I can relate to his reaction, because to this alcoholic, mentioning something like that is a red flag. It's like saying "I DARE YOU".  Needless to say, he found the bottle.

He went on a four-day blackout drunk that ended up in him missing work. His marriage was on the line when his wife came back home.

I saw a spark of life in his eyes after the meeting. I went up and hugged him, and we laughed about the insanity of hiding bottles of alcohol in the house.

It just hurts right now. I talked to my sponsor, and she said that it was yet more proof of how cunning, baffling, and powerful this disease is.

His funeral is Thursday. Please pray for his family, especially his wife. She is devastated.