A reminder to all about the consequences of drinking and driving: I lost five people in my family some years ago to a drunk driver. All were under the age of 23 including my nephew who was four months old.
Don’t think it can’t happen to your family. Ours was on the way home from dinner at their mom’s. “He” was heading home after a few drinks after work. They all died; he was injured but carried on with life and back to the bar.
Please don’t let another family have to endure that knock on the door or have to make those horrible phone calls. Call a cab, take transit. Be a designated driver. Take someone’s keys away. Make your company sleep on the couch. Put everyone up for an overnight stay and make them breakfast instead of attending their funerals. Phone in someone who has been drinking and is going to drive. I have phoned in people I know. Better they get angry at you for doing so instead of never seeing them again or they take out someone who doesn’t have control over this simple decision: don’t drink and drive... you will save lives.
All these years later, especially at Christmas they are still missed as much today as they were the day after, and you wonder what life would have been like if that simple decision had been made.
Dawne Garnett
Nelson