"On the night of Boxing Day 2021, my dad's body was found near a Cardiff hostel. His death, at 55, was as sudden as it was not. For years, alcoholism had been changing the shape of his heart. He died less than a mile from his old office; top law firm, equity partner. Four miles from our once tight-knit home in a leafy neighbourhood."
"I saw my dad for the last time in the spring of 2019, just before I moved to Australia. I was no longer able to bear the distress and chaos caused by his addiction. From then on I saw him only in photos: an article about homeless people getting Christmas dinner; the police's missing-person appeals. Where had my caring, clever dad gone? I never spoke about his drinking. It seemed disloyal, then gloomy, then futile."
My father's body was found near a Cardiff hostel on Boxing Day 2021 at age 55, after years of alcoholism that reshaped his heart. He once worked as an equity partner at a top law firm but lost his job and family in 2019 and later became homeless and frequently jailed. Contact ceased when the narrator moved to Australia in 2019, and thereafter the father appeared only in photos and missing-person appeals. The narrator began compulsively composing words after his death as a coping mechanism and published a memoir, which felt cathartic and prompted vigilance about personal drinking since becoming a parent.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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