My mother is an alcoholic. She is also the best person I know. I'm not saying this just because she is my mother, but because she truly is the best person I have ever met. I am 20 years old, and I have a brother who is 23 and a sister who is 17. While we were growing up as children, our mother was the typical stay at home mom. She would make three meals a day, clean, do laundry; tend to her children's wants and needs. Then when I was about 12 years old, things started going downhill. My parents got divorced, and my mother developed a severe case of alcoholism. Witnessing what seemed to be like a transformation of the mother we had known our whole lives was more than difficult for my siblings and me. My mother had taken care of me since I had been born, and it killed me how not only had she become unable to take care of me, but she became unable to take care of herself. The hardest thing I've ever had to do was visit my mother in prison, and I know my brother and sister would say the same. She served 6 months in county jail for DUI charges. I knew she didn't belong there and anyone who knew my mother would have said the same thing. We never lost faith in our mother, and we always knew she loved us more than anything, but we wanted the mother we had always known to come back.
My mother has been sober since December 17th, 2008, four years and counting. I can confidently say I have my mom back. If you ask her how she finally did it, she will tell you she had help from a higher power. However, I think that she finally realized the pain she was causing for her kids and loved ones, and therefore had no choice but to get better. She knew her children needed their mother back.
I have never met anyone who puts others before themself the way that she does. Not just her family or people she knows, but anyone. She has taught me not to judge. She has taught me to keep an open mind, to be accepting of all people. She says, "always do the next right thing", and by living with that mindset, good things will come your way.
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There is a special comfort that my siblings and I have with our mom. We know she would give the world for us and we can always count on her. But what i think is most important is if I make a mistake, no matter how severe, I know my mom will still be by my side, guiding me through every step of the way.
That is why my mom is the best.
