This last year has been the worst year of my life so far, and that’s saying something. This first story is about the event that started it all. And there’s no real way I can make it funny, unfortunately.
It started in December of 2014, three days before Christmas, my stepdad died.
That day started off strange, I made a stupid decision to have my partner (Mike) meet my mom (Leah) and stepdad (Frank) because they had invited us to go to a Christmas party. I had this weird feeling about it all day, but I’d figured if we were around a lot of people, things wouldn’t get crazy. Boy was I wrong.
So, my boyfriend and I got all dressed up for this party and we met them at their house because the party was right down the street. My mom was already drunk when we got there, and not just “kind of” drunk, 5 VO7’s in drunk. She was arguing with my stepdad over nothing and he had a few drinks in order to just put up with her.
This is nothing new, of course. They had been together for about 15 years. He was 20 years older than her, he was 70 and she was 50. They both drank very hard together for the first 10 years, argued all the time. Why they stayed together, I have no idea. But, because of drinking, smoking and stress, my stepdad had health issues. He had COPD and I’m not sure what else. He had to stop smoking, obviously, and he should’ve stopped drinking, but didn’t. Which, I’m sure, is probably part of the reason he died.
In retrospect, I should’ve left when I realized they were 3 sheets to the wind, but we were all ready there and dressed up, and I couldn’t have known what was about to happen.
So, we went to the party, it was awkward. My boyfriend and I are both introverts and we didn’t know anybody so we wanted to leave. Meanwhile, my mom is embarrassing herself by being a drunk asshole to her friends and neighbors, and my stepdad was drinking trying to ignore it. He seemed a bit off and I asked him if he was alright, he said, “yeah.”
We finally decided to leave. At this point my mom was drunk as fuck so she decided to walk back to the house because; 1. She was pissed at my stepdad and 2.she wanted to smoke. My boyfriend and I had jumped in the back of the car because it was cold as hell and snowing. We were snuggled up in the back seat trying to get warm and waiting for my stepdad. We didn’t think about it because we figured my mom and him were still fighting outside.
Then we heard a thump. We looked at each other in panic and I told Mike to, “get the fuck out of the car!” We found Frank at the back of the car, sprawled out on the driveway gravel, struggling to breath and bleeding from the back of his head. I screamed for mom, luckily she wasn’t too far away and came running. She grabbed him and put him on his side. She was like, “It’s OK, this has happened before. He’ll come out of it!”
But then he stopped breathing. At this point, I told Mike to call 911 and I ran back to the house for help. The doorman (this was an expensive party) just happened to be trained in CPR and had supplies for it. So we both ran back and he started CPR on Frank. I stood there and held my phone up for light. The whole time, I’m watching my stepdad turn blue and the life leave his eyes.
This was the first time I’d ever seen someone die. It’s ugly, not like in the movies. There’s a lot of fluid and flailing, especially when someone is suffocating to death. I believe my stepdad was gone way before the ambulance showed up. Mike held me and kept me from watching them take him away, but I caught a glimpse of the face of one of the EMT’s and I could tell he knew he was gone.
I was inconsolable and I fell on my knees in the wet gravel. I was panicking, but I was also in utter shock. I just remember Mike holding me while I cried. I’ve never cried so hard in my life.
My mom was still drunk and the cops were questioning her because, you know, she was acting like a fucking idiot. After the cops left, I ended up driving us to the ER where they took Frank. We waited there for two hours for the doctor finally came out and told us that he’d passed away.
I took mom back home, she passed out immediately. So, Mike and I went home and I didn’t sleep all night.
The next few months I suffered from PTSD, watching him die over and over. Everything started to fall apart.
Coming in Pt. 2: My mom makes me want to kill myself.
Another Harmless Freak 