This month, my uncle lost his nephew, my cousin by marriage, to alcohol. Matt, or “Little Matt” as he was known in the family, passed away on Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. He died, by what we know, of liver failure and brain injury related to alcohol use. He was 43 years old.

This month, all month, has been National Recovery Month, and there have been plenty of posts, blogs, and celebrations for those in recovery, individuals who found their way out of addiction. I applaud those individuals. I know many of them and am friends with many of them. Their personal stories are shocking, moving, and, most of all, inspiring. But those are not the stories I am going to talk about here today. Today is for Matt.

Matt was born a child of the '80s. His mother is Kathy, and his father is Tom. Kathy put Tom through dental school, and after that, according to my uncle, “he found someone he liked more than my sister.” Tom remarried, and so did Kathy, but the split was amicable.

Kathy married Big Matt, who is, by everyone’s description, a tremendously kind, loving person, and he embraced Little Matt and his older brother Aaron as if they were his own sons. Little Matt grew up hiking, fishing, and spending........

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