“I love you.” the words escaped her mouth and tickled my nose with the overpowering stench of her clear happiness. As I am wrapped up in a hug all I smell are her marbros lingering on her clothes. A tear escapes my eye but I wipe it away quickly. She can't see. She won't understand why i'm crying. Her mind has been taken over by all the alcohol she has ingested. I go to my room, close my door, and let the darkness consume me as I cry. The salty tears creep into my mouth. My mother pokes her head into my room to check on me and I shut my puffy eyes to pretend i'm sleeping. Slowly I drift off into slumber.

My aunt is a fun person on the inside. She is one of the closest people I have to me now. Me and her share the same birthday so I feel like we have a connection almost from that and that is why we are so close. She is one of the hardest workers I know. Some people are scared of her because she has a cold exterior and if you make her mad or she doesn't like you, you will know it. But, we weren't always so close with each other.

Both sides of my family have an alcohol problem. I didn't think it was such a bad thing. I would see my mom come home and she would be all goofy and I thought it was fun. I thought the same with my aunt until I saw the portions change when she made her drinks. Her attitude would shift also. It started with a drink here to going out a couple times. Then it a couple turned into every night and soon she wasn't able to function without a drink. The more she drank the higher her tolerance went up so soon she was buying a bottle of vodka every week or every couple days. I would be at home and my mom would come running out of her room and go outside in such a hurry I had no time to ask what the rush was. I followed her outside to find my aunt was there in her falling apart car with blood on her. My mom would yell and ask what she did but my aunt never knew. She would just sit there and stare in her lap. Mom would just take her keys, bring her inside to clean her up, then lay her down on the cloud where she would sleep for what felt like days. Then she would wake up and start right back up. During the winter my sister had against Westby, my school's biggest rival, and she was super pumped for it. Me, mom, grandma, and grandpa all went to watch Ashley's game. As the game is going on my aunt stumbles her way in cursing at people walking past her. She is barely able to stand, but she spots us and comes over to take a seat. She reeks of cigarettes and liquor and to top it all off she is wearing a bright red Westby norsemen sweatshirt. The whole time she yelled at Ashley and she just pretended she didn't know my aunt. After that game my sister refused to ride home with us and rode the bus.

I could tell my mom was getting sick of having to take care of my aunt so much but what was she supposed to do? I understand now why she would get so mad when auntie would show up wasted out of her mind and couldn't recall even how she got to our house. During the christmas of 2011 she showed up so drunk she fell asleep while we opened our presents. My mom yelled at her and everyone went home early. Mom threatened to take away her drink and send her away to get help. At first my aunt flipped but after a little bit she started to cry. Sadly mom gave in and just went to bed because she didn't want to hear anymore of my aunts excuses.

“I’ll change” “ Come on it isn’t even that bad Tena” “ Why don’t we just go out for a drink together. It will calm you down” 

My mother basically gave up on helping her at this point. She wasn't terrible till late January. We walked outside and found her laying on the ground and her whole body was torn up. It looked like she got put through a wood chipper on high speed. There was blood everywhere. My mom, my aunt, and me were all crying. After she got cleaned up and layed down my mom talked to my grandparents and they all agreed to put auntie into rehab.
My aunt was little stubborn at first but slowly got used to the house she was staying at. There was about 4 other girls there also struggling with addiction. Me and my mom would go and visit her and she would show us around. We would sit in the living room and she would show us these beautiful drawings she made and how she's feeling better and getting over the sickening feeling she had when she first got there. We spoke with the other ladies and they opened up to my mom, not me so much probably because I was 12 and just didn't understand really what was going on. She would always ask where Ashley was and my mom would make up an excuse to not hurt her feelings. My sister never came with because she thought it wouldn't work and she would never get clean because of how bad she was.

After she was there for a while they started going out of the house to these AA meetings but they seemed like a party for sober people. There was a table full of soda, water, and snacks. . On the other side of the room there was a man playing guitar and singing. My aunt introduced us to some of the people she has met since she has been in the house and they all kept telling me how good of a person is. After that not much longer my aunt was released from there to come home. We attended one more gathering and a lot of people talked about how they recovered and how they got through it. The majority of the others had their family there for support just like my aunt had. I thought it was heartbreaking when some people didn't have anyone there for them but at least my aunt wasn't one because we were there for her and we always will be.
It has been 4 years in February since my aunt had her last drink. These past years we have grown closer than ever and words can not explain how proud I am of her to stop the nasty habit she had. Each day I thank god that she is here and he didn't take her from me  because there was a lot of opportunities for that. She Is one of the biggest influences in my life and i'm one of the luckiest girls in the world to have her by my side.