My drinking problem

My drinking problem.
By
John Clausen.

I guess it was inevitable that I would have a problem with drinking, my father a well-known drinker in each town he lived, has for many years let alcohol consume his life. Now with his second wife and after four children he is a gray skinned beer bellied man of fifty-two. I was the first-born and three years later followed my brother Michael who never fully understood at the time what had become of our father when my courageous mother finally left him. I was to help console him as my mother cried endless nights in the years that followed. Heavy drinking and womanizing were the two main causes for the divorce between my parents.

Following the divorce my father had a great time, free once more to drink a lot see lots of women and forget about his family. It was many years before he was to make a real effort to see us on a regular basis, many birthdays and Christmas parties were forgotten or he showed up drunk. My father became a father again for the third time just after he turned forty. It may come as little surprise that history did in fact repeat itself once again; although not married this time he was kicked out of his girlfriend’s home for behavior unfitting for a man of his age and responsibilities. This only led to more destruction on his part and left the three children without a father again.

The years since my parents were divorced my father played very little part in our lives whilst we attended school, very few efforts were made on his part to help us mentally or financially, and much the same for our younger brother. At the ripe old age of fifty my father re-married, he had no other options left open to him and this was his golden ticket you may say. Another younger woman besotted with him for his no doubt drunken charm, with nothing left to lose he reeled her in like a fish on a line and married her as soon as possible.

At fifty-two my father became a father once again, four boys from three different mothers over three decades. It was the day he told me and my brother Michael the news that I really decided i had nothing left in my heart to give this man, all he had really given me apart from life was heartache and sorrow for a very long time, not to mention the pain he caused the rest of my family. In the past fourteen months I've spoken to him twice, the last time was the birthday of my youngest brother whom I've never seen and yes, my father was DRUNK…