Well, there goes all my fun, my mother sighed when Holmer declared that he’d had his last drop of drink. Their marriage had been bathed in booze for a quarter of a century. Alcohol had soothed their nerves through colicky newborns and dying parents and business deals that suddenly fell apart. It settled them down as they ventured from Milwaukee to Chicago to Connecticut and back to Chicago, gaining a kid or two with each move. When the going got tough, they headed to the liquor cabinet, and, suddenly, they weren’t so weak or afraid anymore.
