The night that turned my world upside down.

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong in the broken places." ~Earnest Hemingway

We are all guilty of becoming wrapped up in the routine of our lives. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, when something occurs in our life that rocks us to our core, we suddenly gain an appreciation for when life seemed boring. I think that's where I was the night of Friday, September 10, 2016. At that time in my life, I was genuinely happy and feeling grateful for how blessed my family was. It was 9:45 p.m., I had just left my friend's 40th birthday party downtown and was driving home when I received a call on my cell phone from an "800" #. I was irritated by getting a solicitation call at almost 10 O'clock at night so I answered with intention of giving the caller a piece of my mind... The recorded voice on the other end proceeded to say, "You have a collect call from 'Billy', an inmate at the County Jail." I accepted the call, but the call then disconnected. My first instinct was that my younger brother, who had been home on leave from the Army, had got in a scuffle with someone and got himself arrested. It's important to mention here that he is not the type to get in trouble, but certain circumstances at this time in his life, led me to think it was possible. If my little brother was in jail, then I needed to go see what happened and how I could help. Let me paint a picture for you, I had just left a party. I was dressed to the nines....dress, high heels, flashy jewelry, leather jacket.....make up, hair, the whole bit.... and I'm walking into the County jail for the first time in my life at 10 O'clock on a Friday night....I was nervous, on edge and worried about my brother. I entered the jail and proceed to the counter to speak with the sheriff on duty who stood behind a glass partition. She proceeded to read a form and explained why he was brought in. The reason stated was, "failure to appear" which left me confused. It didn't make sense. I explained that my brother was home on leave to apply for a job with the Sheriff's Department in a neighboring county. The fact that he was a serviceman and looking to become a sheriff must have got her attention. She pulled the whole file to see if she could find any more information she could share. She laid the folder down on the counter. From the other side of the partition, I could clearly see the folder and I will never forget the moment she opened it and I saw the 8X10 mug shot photo in front of me.... The man I saw was not my 20-something, handsome little brother. Instead, the black and white photo was of a man in a black and white striped prison uniform who was aged, wrinkled, thin and frail. The picture before me was of a man I vaguely recognized as my father. He was just 69-years-old, but he looked 90. For a split second my brain had to process what I was seeing, once the reality hit, I burst into tears right there in front of this stranger, in a jail, on a Friday night... There wasn't much I could do at this point except schedule a video visitation with him that following Sunday. From that night forward, my relatively sheltered life, my seemingly "perfect" life seemed to crumble beneath me. The reality of it all came flooding forward, the memories of being daddy's little girl were erased by the reality of my father being an alcoholic, homeless, and now, incarcerated... #alcoholic, #homeless, #incarcerated #alcoholism #addiction