Dad and his mother, Gladys, had been so close. But she loved him so much that she drank herself to death worrying about him. She just couldn’t bear him being away in the army—he went to Germany—and she died because of it. And that left my dad with his demons, self-destructive demons, and he acted out on them. I have everything in me that wants to numb out, too, and do the same fucking thing.
