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.