Are you not going to have a drink?
Orders go flying around from person to person and my simple order of a coke raises eyebrows.
There was a time I wasn't like this. I could down so many "cocktails" with no worry about the consequences. But that all changed..gradually with the "not so many at one time", then ultimately to "absolutely NO drinking if I knew I was going to be driving".
What's a drink or two or three? Certainly you can handle it and still be a master behind the wheel. I thought I'd always feel that way. It was only after a 3rd fatal car accident that I knew that the rule no longer applied to me.
My dad was a lover of beer. I honestly don't remember one time watching him drink a clear glass of water. Driving while he was drunk never worried him, even if all 3 of kids were in the back seat, in the front seat or even on occasion on his lap assisting in the steering of the wheel. My dad didn't think it was a big deal to drink, even after a doctor told him that if he didn't stop he'd end up dead. Ultimately his liver met it's end, the result: the end of my dad’s life. For what.. it seams so pointless and stupid all because he couldn't stop drinking.
Cold pavement, pain in my chest, loss of breath, throbbing pain "is this how someone feels before they die?" This was only one of the thoughts that crossed my mind just within minutes of colliding with another vehicle. "Where did he come from?".. "the driver was drunk" "the driver was drunk" "the driver was drunk"... How could I have known, without knowing, that the driver of the other vehicle was drunk?
"I can't die like this" "I WON'T die like this!"
My dad died from drinking, my granddad died becaue of a drunk driver, and one of my closest friends is gone because he was drunk and got in a car with a drunk driver.
"This is NOT how I'm going to die!" “My family and friends can’t lose another person because of alcohol.”
The guy who hit my car was drunk and he lost his life that night, almost 3 years ago.
Almost 3 years ago. Sometimes it feels like it just happend a short while ago.
I've made a commitment that I'll never drink and drive. Having a cocktail and not driving doesn't mean I'm a prude. Quit honestly, it's not much of a sacrafice either, because any time I'm offered I go back to that night 3 years ago. I go back to the night I lost one of my closests friends. I go back to the day my grandmother lost her husband of 50 years. In the matter of seconds, I know the risk isn't worth it.
In loving memory of:
Charles Kahl my granddad: I miss how your face would scrunch up when you'd smile
Rick Frank Robert Ainsworth (Ricky) one of my dearest friends: I miss all the countless ways you'd make me laugh so hard I'd cry.
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