Friday, July 17, 2026
During COVID, I worked from home from around March until June. Since I had no supervisors around, it was easy to hide my drinking. We had one Zoom call every day, but after that I could spend my day however I wanted—whether that meant actually working or drinking.
When we started going back to the office in June, it was three days one week and two days the next. We still had our daily Zoom calls, but there were very few people in the office because employees with serious health conditions were allowed to continue working from home.
By December, our family had to move because we couldn’t make it on my income and Miles’ Walmart income alone. We moved to the town where my younger sister lived. Around that time, I had my granddaughter almost all the time, and I was going to need help watching her on the days I had to work.
While I was working from home during COVID, I made one of the biggest mistakes of my career.
I had been day drinking before one of our Zoom meetings with my team and my supervisor. I don’t remember exactly what gave me away, but she knew something wasn’t right.
I got in trouble at work.
I didn’t lose my job, but I was required to get help and provide proof that I was participating in treatment.
I started attending an outpatient program two days a week for about three hours each visit. Work continued paying me while I attended, and every time I went, I had to take a urine test to make sure I hadn’t been drinking.
One day, I tested positive for alcohol.
That one failed test was enough for them to recommend I enter a 30-day inpatient treatment program.
I agreed.
Looking back, I really wanted to get better.
But when I got there, it wasn’t what I had been told to expect. Before I arrived, I had been told I could write letters home and that I could still have my Diet Dr Peppers. Once I got there, none of that was true. The only exception seemed to be for smokers—they were still allowed cigarette breaks.
At the time, I focused on what I felt they had done wrong instead of what I needed to do for myself.
I stayed for only two days before I went home.
Looking back now, I can see that I was looking for a reason to leave, and once I found one, I took it.
When I got home, I was right back where I had started.
I told work I wasn’t going back to the outpatient program or the 30-day treatment center. I said I would still attend AA meetings, but I was done with everything else.
Then I went back to drinking every day.
And then I started forging AA attendance sheets.
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