My family and I appreciate all of your words of encouragement, prayers and support. It is clear that many of you have suffered a similar loss and all of you in my prayers as well. Papa Bear, I am a friend of Bill W too. I attained 18 years of sobriety on July 11th this year. Twenty years ago I was almost certain that my sister would be eulogizing me, but I was able to turn my life around. I have to believe that God, or whomever your higher power is, has a plan for each one of us.
I never would have imagined that I would outlive my sister though. She was the popular one, the social butterfly and a beautiful person with a great sense of humor. She was runner up in the contest for Homecoming queen and graduated with a four year college degree. I on the other hand am an introvert, served in the USAF and have 120 semester hours of college, but never bothered to complete my degree. I dabbled in things that I shouldn't have, but cleaned up my act before getting married and have been blessed with two remarkable kids.
The night my stepmother found out about my sister's passing, I kept telling her to take things one second at a time. That's what I had to do when I first gave up alcohol, mainly because trying to take things one day at a time seemed far to difficult those first few weeks without my beloved Jack Daniels. I tried to explain the significance, but my stepmother was too far gone to comprehend so I listened and tried my best to be supportive. It was the best that I could do given her state of mind. My wife was able to connect with my stepmother to some degree, so I thank God that she was there to help.
As of this evening, we are still in a holding pattern waiting for the coroner in L.A. to release my sister's remains. My 13 year old daughter helped me to look up my sister's page on Myspace.com, which allowed me to locate a few of her friends here in Houston that I had not talked to in many years. One of my sister's first boyfriends became a Houston Police Officer about 12-15 years ago and has been able to help my family obtain information that would have been difficult to come by without his help.
Other than that, I decided to go to work today. Keeping busy is my standard operating procedure for dealing with tragedy. I am trying to decide if I want to say something at the funeral service, but don't know if I will be able to do so without breaking down. This may do more harm than good, as I don't want to make everyone lose it as well. This is new territory for me.
Sorry for the rambling post. Thanks again for taking the time to read this. God Bless
Here is a link to my sister's Myspace page (Some of the content is risque, but there is no nudity):
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52078769