34 Comments
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Marianna Portela's avatar

Thank you. ♥️🙏

Sally Jupe's avatar

Thank you Kelly. Love your writing. I did the grocery bag thing too. 💔

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Thank you for telling me that! 😭

Laury Boone Browning's avatar

This hits hard. Evocative and visual writing. Thank you.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Thank you so much, Laury. Not an easy one to write.

Jodi Sh. Doff's avatar

You gave me chills babes. Giving me an ultimatum was the hardest thing my mother ever did. She bled internally from the stress, but it was the only way she could think of to save me. Or herself. Or both of us. It would be another 15 years before I got sober, but I'm grateful I have that moment to look back on and know that that was love, no matter what it felt like at the time.

My heart hurts for parents I know in program who have children who need to be there, because they know all the things their children will not tell them. They already know. And it's got to just kill them.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

It’s brutal. Thank you Jodi.

Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

Heartbreaking, Kelly. I don't know what else to say, except you couldn't have saved her either. There was nothing you could have done. It's not like any of it was a lesson for her to learn. My heart breaks for everyone in the story.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Yes. There was a lesson in it for me. I learned all I could do was love her. We have an incredible, loving, rich and close relationship today. Truly rewarding. She has over twenty years sobriety now. There is a book in this.

Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

Yes, of course. I meant a lesson in it for her, in the old-school way, "a lesson for her to learn." She had a whole arc of living which you could not prevent, probably no matter how good a parent you were or were not. We come into these lives with a whole package to unwrap.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Yes, we do. And our relationships are part of that unwrapping.

Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

Definitely, and I’ve begun to think, it’s in our DNA, generational trauma stored in the body.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

A big part of it. We create the next chapter. I’m proud of the one my daughter and I co-created.

Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

Rightly so. You all did so much heavy lifting.

Mesa Fama's avatar

I’m doing my best not to breakdown sobbing right now. My daughter has fallen down the addiction hole .. and shoved me out of her life. And I sometimes feel like I can’t breathe.

Thank you for writing so beautifully what I can’t. 😭😭😭😭

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Oh Mesa. I can only say I’m here. And I’ve been there. And it was the hardest journey of my life. All love. 😭

Mesa Fama's avatar

Thank you, friend. ❤️‍🩹All love your way too.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

I got you. Solidarity.

Tina Day's avatar

Every piece you right hits home, every piece tears a hole in me and fills it up all at once. ❤️

I think God/the universe gave me boys so I was not tempted to try to fix them too much, and so that I could learn that men are not born to take from women, to fear them.

Your path of broken glass and redemption holds such meaning, such wisdom, for all of us. Thank you.

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Your words are solace to me today, Tina. I am honored and touched.

Laura McConnell's avatar

I love your writing and your life experiences

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Thank you, Laura! Ditto.

Albert Kivak's avatar

Is a game designed to bolster your writing

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

? I hope my piece inspired it.

Albert Kivak's avatar

Nope. It was built before I knew you

Albert Kivak's avatar

That’s what was posted, after the electricity was deliberately shut off by our government, but I had written all of that 10 years ago—changed third person she in second person you. ;)

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Ok all credit to Charlotte!

Albert Kivak's avatar

Thank you for the powerful insight and useful commentary

Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Thank you for your read and comment.