My 75-Year-Old Dad Relapsed On Crack

And I’m incredibly proud of him.

Let’s start with a little backstory. My dad has been doing drugs since he was 16 years old. It started out with psychedelics and booze on the long summer days up in the Yukon where he grew up.

Not long after starting to use drugs, his father died suddenly of a heart attack when my dad was only 17 years old — causing his occasional social drug use into a full-on emotional crutch.

We don’t really talk about the death of his father. Even now nearly 60 years later, he still brushes it off and can’t go there emotionally.

My dad came into my life when I was not even two years old — he’s not my biological father (who I’ve never met) but he still became my dad. He raised me and I didn’t know he wasn’t my “real dad” until my early teens – but still thought of him as my father when I found out.

Drugs and alcohol were always a part of the picture when I was growing up, but he was the functional one and my mom was the complete write-off. He still worked every day, as a stockbroker, getting up very early but also coming home very late after nights at the bar/strip club.

We were stuck home with Mom who was a total train wreck, but taught me the effects of drugs and alcohol– for that I’m grateful. She quickly became exactly what I never wanted to be.

Dad, on the other hand, held it together when he was high — so I respected him despite his angry outbursts…