There are four children in my family of origin. I am the youngest of the four. My eldest brother turned out to be a “normie” but not for a lack of effort…he at one time was no angel. However, it turns out the three remaining siblings are the addicts and alcoholics in the family. I’ll put my own addiction and subsequent recovery aside today because it is my siblings, the middle children, who weigh heavily on my mind these days. Most recently, I’m sick about my sister-the last of us to reach the chronic stages of this disease.

I can’t continue without mention of the second eldest brother in my family, who died of his disease five years ago in July. His was a struggle of lengthy and torturous proportions that culminated with his death sitting on the mausoleum steps in the cemetery near my parent’s home. He was an alcoholic from childhood and his entire adult life was spent as an alcoho …