Temperance by Alan Berecka

Each year come Ash Wednesday my Father swore off the sauce-- cold turkey for forty days and forty nights of self-willed sobriety. Our family's life slid slowly off its hard edge. Each night my parents watched over my bedside Lenten prayers. Finished, I'd climb into bed and fall asleep counting down the days until Jesus would rise from the tomb, and the bottle would descend from the unlocked cupboard again.

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