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There is nothing like getting a phone call in the middle of the night by you father’s security detail with sirens wailing in the background and him being very short and contrite but telling us we need to get to the hospital ASAP, it was TJ. My stomach dropped. Ann was worried sick. But, we went and was greeted at the door with security and police and taken to TJ’s room and saw what we all dreaded. TJ overdosed at the club opening, probably a volitle mixture of what dad said to him and his heart getting stomped on again. TJ was never any good at handling this life, always in the limelight…I mean they roasted him when he came out as a teen. He was forced to. After that, he wasn’t the same. Father offered to watch him, perhaps he realized a lot of his overdoes was because of him. Either way, he let us get the fire under control before it blew up too badly. Mother doing what she did best, aiding Chinese Navy on the bottom of the ocean while me and her team sent the press chasing their tails. The next morning, Gram and Annie fixed up the guest room. Got it ready for TJ to move back in with mom and I knew he was going to hate that. He wasn’t released for four days.
I was right too, he absolutely hated it. For several days, we didn’t see him. He didn’t come out and eat, wouldn’t touch the food taken in to him, he just didn’t leave the bed. It wasn’t like him. When he came home and after the media circus died down some, he said he’d try to rehabilitation program again. This time, it was working. Of course, he laid down the law to us at dinner one night. Finally he came out and he looked like hell. But he threw the brochure on the table and took Gram’s drink from her and told us pointedly, that if he had to dry up. So did we. That was the first time I felt like this might actually work. Yeah, it took some work and Gram was extra grumpy for a few weeks but it was working.
It was three months after our wedding that Gram told us what happened a few days before our party. How he made her cry. TJ always hated to see her cry and for him to see that, it broke his heart. Perhaps that is what he was using to get him through the program. I guess he thought no one cared, with us all pursuing our political careers and Annie making a name for herself in the interior design world. I can understand why he felt like that to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t like we gave him much support. He was steamrolled, left behind to figure things out on his own and when he did…when he found something that was his speed, his desire…we didn’t help. Alright, I did. But I almost didn’t. He was never interested in politics and it wasn’t like he chose the family…he was raised in the spotlight and all he wanted was to have something he could call his own.
But, he was sober and after his overdoes the club skyrocketed in popularity. People all trying to get a glimpse of him and to party with him, but it became quite the high end place with celebrities calling it their favorite place. Finally, it felt like TJ had caught the break he so desperately wanted. It felt like things were going so well. Annie was pregnant, he was five months sober and things were just finally settling into a normal routine.
Of course not all good things last. At 7:40 pm one night, things changed again. It sent our family into a dark place and I saw something I can’t ever unsee. His past caught up with him and Gram’s biggest fear was very close to coming true. TJ made the papers again. But instead of tearing us…him down. They rallied behind us. They rallied behind him.
Here it is.
This is the truth of what happened that night that still plaques poor Teej with nightmares.