For parents sitting on the fence about facing their chronic addiction, here is a thought regarding your family legacy.

The manner of your untimely death becomes a verbal tombstone for their children. 

Upon a tragic and wasteful death, children won't  remember that Mama could make beautiful quilt patterns of her own design, or whip up a great meal with meager ingredients.   Or that she loved to sing and could carry a tune.

They won't remember that Dad was an artistic cabinet maker or a could fix any type of motor or engine or that he had a hearty laugh and gentle hands.

Rather, the legacy an addicted parent leaves is the trauma of their death.  It becomes the verbal headstone a child passes on to family, grandchildren and friends.

So if you are most unfortunate and die from choking on vomit while passed out, or burning up in a fire while stoned, your child will always say, "Mama died drunk" as if that on act was the sum total of their mother's complex life.

Likewise, if Daddy was to die while driving drunk, then his verbal tombstone would be, "Daddy died drunk" as if he too, didn't accomplish one other single act in his entire life.

The age of your child at the moment of your untimely death doesn't matter.  Youthful child or a adult the verbal headstone remains the same.

It isn't too late to change your verbal tombstone for the sake of future generations.