Houston just had to go to Murfreesboro. He never listens to anyone. We all tried to get him to stay home and just be cool. Now he is more than a hundred miles away and very sick. He is sleeping in the bushes behind a convenience store, not far from a liquor store.

It’s probably his liver deteriorating from all the alcohol he’s consumed over the years. His Mother died from cirrhosis of the liver due to drinking alcohol and not eating. Houston just turned 45 in March of2008 and it looks like his life is about finished. He never touched alcohol while in his teens and early twenties. He worked in a knitting mill and took care of his wife and kid and a couple of kids that weren’t even his. But tragedy struck one night. Houston let his guard down and a child molester crept in and assaulted his two stepdaughters. The man was caught and it turned out that he was the little girl’s grandfather.

He got thirty years and died in prison. DCS took the girls away but also took Houston’s biological daughter who was visiting her grandmother on the night of this atrocity. Houston’s daughter was raised by strangers. Houston’s family was broken up and scattered. After finally piecing his life back together somewhat, Houston remarried and had a fine little boy with his new bride. One weekend while Houston was away on business and his mother was babysitting his son, tragedy struck again. It seems his mother had a heart attack(brought on by liver disease) shortly after his departure and died.She had been dead at least twelve hours before she was discovered. The one and a half year old childwas dehydrated and scared. DCS accused Houston of child neglect and took his son. His son is being raised by strangers.

Houston never got past a third grade education and never learned to cope with the things that life can throw at us. After the death of his mother and the loss of his son, Houston was found hanging in a tree from a rope, by a policeman. The policeman climbed the tree and cut the rope and had Houston rushed to the hospital by ambulance, where he recovered and was counseled at a mental hospital and released. Houston has a death wish. He wants to die. He thinks no one cares and hopes the next life will be better. He loves alcohol. From the time he wakes up, until he passes out. He has a love affair with the bottle. I see him often and each time I do, he seems to have aged more and sunk deeper into his lifestyle. I reach out to him but he won’t reach back. It’s like reaching out to a drowning man that doesn’t want to be saved. I feel so bad for him because he has given up on himself. I feel so bad because after all, I’m his brother.