Before the Pot

I did everything right as a mother. We did everything right as a family.  I was able to stay at home with my children, my husband had a very good job. We did things as a family. There was no alcohol in the house. When the kids got older we talked to them about not drinking or taking drugs, and how to respond if someone tried to tempt them.  We did it right.  Both of my children were successful in school.  My daughter had a lot of friends, was involved with sports, on the honor roll and in the honor society.  This was a life that the word addiction was never considered.  Never in million years did I expect life to take the direction that it has.  I have reviewed the past over and over and over, trying to see what wasn't right, and I come up with nothing.  I read to them, I baked cookies, they had birthday parties, we spent a lot of time together, yet they weren't smothered.  We went to their games. Carved Jack-O-Lanterns. We had arguments, but we made up. They were loved to over flowing.  I remember one morning my daughter came into the kitchen and said to me, "Mommy, I love you as much as flowers smell sweet."  Life was sweet.