My event began years before the actual event occurred. My stepson had been diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder when he was seventeen years old. He was also exhibiting the signs of alcoholism, which ran in the family. His biological father had died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of thirty seven years old. His mother and I were both recovering addicts, and argued constantly over whether we should use tough love (me) or enable him (her). I was just his stepfather; she was his mother so I would always follow her lead eventually. Over the next thirteen years he abused alcohol and would steal from us or his sisters to get his alcohol, or to drive our cars without permission. He ended up in prison numerous times for violating his probation, so much so he was on a first name basis with the correction officers at the county prison. The event happened on December fourteenth, 2005. I was awakened at five thirty A.M. by the warden of Lancaster County Prison, and notified that my son had committed suicide in his cell at four A.M. by hanging himself. I went into hysterics immediately and handed the phone to my wife who also lost it. I don’t remember much of that day except that it was our sons thirty first birthday, and that he surely wouldn’t have killed himself on this day, but he had.…
