Traditions Worth Keeping

Sometimes Everybody Needs Recovery

Lucy finds a warm Thanksgiving welcome, in her childhood home with her father's new family.
Sharing traditions strange and familiar. Creating something new, together.
But she worries about her brother Jacob facing changes while he repairs his own life.
Can Jacob help Lucy take the next step in her own recovery?

Also available in the collection Passages in the Real World

An excerpt from Traditions Worth Keeping:
Learning to Trust Again, Especially Herself

Lucy fought back a wave of guilt about not picking him up at the airport instead of listening to his calm insistence that he'd get himself there.

The next breaker rolling in on the rising guilt tide was how many huge liquor stores were between the airport and their father's house. All of them probably still open, and perfectly willing to take her little brother's money.

And his fragile new sobriety right along with it.

"Get a grip, Lucy," she said quietly. "He keeps telling you, Jana keeps telling you, your therapist keeps telling you, mom and dad keep telling you." She took a deep breath and told it to herself. "I'm not my brother's keeper."

She almost dropped the mustard at a deep voice from right behind her.

"Never thought I hear you say that out loud."

Jacob stood there, backpack in hand, grinning like the goofy, exasperating kid he'd been before so many things went wrong.