This true story shows how having a drinking alcoholic in our close family has affected our lives. The problem is that you cannot forget what has happened, you cannot un-see what you have seen, or forget the gross things you had to deal with. There is no guarantee it won't happen again, and that isn't fair. I have always thought of Alcoholics as scruffy, smelly people who care about nothing and no-one apart from where their next drink is coming from. So imagine my horror when my brother-in-law morphed into this stereotypical image and the nightmare began for his brother and me.