REVALATIONS

After Ron had returned home from work, exercised, had dinner and relaxed a little while I decided it was time to give him the news. I told him as calmly as possible everything that Courtney had told me and much to my surprise he didn't explode, but did express some obscenities in a louder than normal tone of voice. Actually Ron had been more upset about her getting her lip pierced after he told her not to. Maybe he was remembering that on more than one occasion he had driven after having a drink or two and so had most everyone we knew.

Of course the first thing he worried about was "how much is this going to cost me?" He was shocked that she went to court without representation. Courtney was the daughter of an attorney so how on earth did she not realize that you just don't go to court without a lawyer. He was heartbroken that after all we had been though the past couple of years that she would do something like this.

Courtney told me that she had been out with a few other women who had graduated from the rehab and she had a couple of glasses of wine. She didn't think that it would "hurt to have a little wine." But it did hurt her, her boyfriend, her father and me. It was going to hurt more when her license was suspended and when her car insurance increased. It was going to hurt those at the halfway house who thought she was one of their "successes."

We were told that she was given an "excessive DUI" because of her medication. I fell for it at first. An extreme DUI is given to those whose blood alcohol is 1.5 to 2.0. She had more than a couple glasses of wine.

I texted Courtney and let her know that her father was taking the news rather well and he did not yell at all, just cursed. After the shock wore off (and he was still calm) he decided he was impressed with the way she had taken responsibility for her actions and was handling things on her own. She texted back "Thank you for being supportive, I was so scared you guys would cut me off and never talk to me again. I can't handle losing my family again."

We were actually grateful that Courtney had been picked up and had not caused an accident. We would have never known otherwise that she was starting to substitute alcohol for drugs. The quicker she faced consequences for her actions the quicker she could face whatever caused her to want to drink.

She was also lucky she was stopped before she wandered any further into gang territory. She said "I had no clue it was a bad area. Apparently out where I was your car gets shot up if they don't recognize it and Chris said if I would have gone another mile further I could of easily gotten raped, beaten and left for dead. I'll never go there again. So really it could of been a miracle that I got arrested." I guess blessings do come in some weird disguises. She told us "I love you all very much and am so grateful you are standing by me, your support means the world to me. I would be lost without you and dad." It would still be a few days before she could get the nerve to call.