My brother’s been in and out of jail and rehab for years. Meth and opioids. We’re not close, but he was a great kid annoying younger brother before I went to college. Then he started drugs and kept doing them into his 30s.

He made it to 6 months sober for the first time in 20 years, as of last month. He was in a transitional care facility and it was going well. I was so very proud of him.

He took a trip to visit his mom and he backslid majorly. She found him totally out of it on the side of the road. She took him home. He tried to stab her bathrobe and nightgown with a knife because he thought they were intruders.

Then he

spoiler

attempted suicide

and she took him to the hospital.

He’s… ok… now. He’s back at stage 1 of the transitional care facility. No phone or Internet. Working his way back to 1 month. The facility is lovely and patient, from what I hear.

It’s all really hard for everyone. From my point of view, I get news filtered through my mom and we don’t have a great relationship, so I don’t 100% trust what she tells me and it’s always stressful to hear from her. He’s several states away.

I’ve started writing him postcards again, like I did when he was in jail. Postcards are nice because I run out of things to say with a weekly letter, but can always fill up a postcard. The most important thing is to let him know I’m thinking of him.