What it was like?

It was hard on me to watch a good friend to go through the addiction with not much help.

What happened?

Make The Most Of Second Chances I met Karen at a package delivery company. We worked in the same area. It wasn't long before we struck up the usual co-worker banter. Karen was very pretty, especially since she was a year older than I was. I was overweight and considered Karen out of my league, but in the back of my mind hope sprang eternal. I was happy at first just getting to know her, but after a while I think we bonded (I'll own the fact she also had nice boobs, you couldn't help but notice. Hey I'm just as human as the next guy.). Although I wanted to get to know her better, I didn't press the issue. A few things emerged early on, Karen said she had gotten pregnant in high school. Later on she revealed that she had been married twice, had two grown up kids and several grandkids. At this point I was only little more than a year away from taking early retirement from Social Security, which I told Karen I was going to do. Karen said she was going to keep working because she didn't qualify for social security. I told Karen my birthday was coming up and she got me a shirt and took me out to lunch at a diner. I really enjoyed being out with her. Due to my older age (and the fact I had two workers comp injury at our employer), I missed a lot of work after that. Karen also hurt herself, outside of work, and missed a lot of time as well. I missed her birthday and that bothered me alot. One thing I found out about Karen was she is a recovering alcoholic. I had worked previously as a probation agent handling dui and dwi cases. Karen had a dui from another state and had lost her license. Although I had experience dealing with alcoholics this was personal. I had deep feelings for Karen (alright I admit I loved her). Would my feelings for Karen cloud my judgement as to when to do an intervention if and when the time called for it (she was already a recovering alcoholic)? We had both missed a lot of time from work several months before I left. One day Karen invited me over for dinner. I wanted everything to be perfect. That's when the proverbial rug got pulled out from underneath me. When I arrived for dinner Karen's eyes were bloodshot, there was an odor of alcohol. I knew this wasn't the evening I expected with Karen. As we were talking about work Karen started to become confused. When I mentioned a supervisor we had she said who. I mentioned this private joke we had at work and she didn't understand it. Karen stated that she was cold (I didn't feel cold at all). I asked Karen if she was ok and she stated she was fine. I had to go to the bathroom and when I came back Karen was unconscious on the floor. Her breathing was shallow so I called 911 (all the time I kept begging Karen not to die). The 911 operator asked what was the emergency. I explained what I had observed and told them she was a recovering alcoholic. While I was waiting for the ambulance, I put two blankets over Karen. I took her hand and started saying Karen if you can hear me I love you please don’t die. When the ambulance came and took Karen away I wanted to go with them, but they wouldn't let me. I didn't drive so I had to wait for a cab to take to the ER. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life. I kept praying for Karen to be alright. I finally arrived at the ER, but the nurses wouldn't let me be with Karen because I wasn't a relative. The next day I called Karen and told her I would help her rehab and I told her I loved her. I told her that we don't get many second chances and that since I got a second chance to tell her that I loved her. I would help her with any second chance at sobriety and that we would go through this process together.

What it is like now?

Not missing time from work

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