I cannot say I understand...

We're here today because each of us loves you. We are here because we cannot sit idly and watch you destroy yourself. We are here because we want you to be the Dad of our memories, the man who took me to Boy Scouts, the man who took us fishing, the man who is our Father. Our Father, though, is in some cases only a memory, one that we catch fleeting glimpses of when he is not poisoned by the bottle.

Your legs are in ill health; your slow shuffle indicates that even you, with your exceptional tolerance for pain, are suffering with every step. Your balance is affected, your thinking slowed, and your attitude deteriorating. With these conditions, we cannot be here to watch you drink your life away. We cannot have another holiday where you lash out and verbally abuse those around you, where you become maudlin and decompensate into a bourbon-addled ramble about your life and those around you. We cannot continue to participate in the life of a person who is choosing his addiction over his health. We cannot participate in your life, and we cannot enable your addiction.

I cannot say that I understand what you feel, how you feel it, or why you drink; I can only understand the visible effects from your drinking, and those effects are enough for me to be here today. Dad, I have watched, from a young age, the effects of alcohol on your life. You've hurt yourself, watched your body slowly crumble out from under you, alienated your family, and become less our father and more a walking caricature of the typical alcoholic. You are an addict, stumbling through life attached to a bottle of bourbon and poisoning your mind, body, and soul with its ill vapors.

However, there is an option. The choice, your choice, to leave your addiction behind, to get treatment for your legs, and live a clean, sober life supported by medical care for your health challenges. Leaving your addiction of over 25 years behind is not a simple task, but we are here to support you. We are here to help you through this time, if you make the choice. With that choice comes the joys of our lives, our weddings, our births, our joys and dreams. We have done a great deal of research and have the resources you need to help you through this choice. But, you need to make it. We are not here to decide for you, or to tell you what to do: we are here to give you the choice of your family and addiction-free living, or your addiction and family-free living.

I want the Father who smiled and hugged me when I crossed the bridge and received my Webelos badge. I want the man who sat in the driveway for days, painting gold stones for the Blue & Gold. I want the Father who was my Cubmaster, who made model rockets with me, who took me to Maine, who gave me the gift of appreciating the simple, dramatic beauty of the ocean. I want my Father back. Please, make the right choice, and crawl out from the bottle and into our lives.