| Many of us have had a spouse or family member | | | | seek help from her parents, deciding to go it alone. |
| arrive home after a few too many drinks. Some of us | | | | Several times it seemed her husband was ready to |
| have needed to make up excuses for a loved one's | | | | quit his devastating lifestyle and commit fully to being a |
| occasional over-drinking. Imagine if this was a daily | | | | good partner and devoted father, only to have him fall |
| occurrence. Waiting, worrying, and watching the clock, | | | | back to bingeing and his alcoholic ways. This |
| wondering when, and in what state, a spouse would | | | | rollercoaster life took its toll on Sequeira, plaguing her |
| finally come home, and then trying to hide it all from | | | | with frequent panic attacks and eventually bringing her |
| neighbors, family and the children. | | | | to the brink of a total breakdown. |
| For seventeen years, this was author Alberta H. | | | | Through arguments, unpaid bills, violent rage, emotional |
| Sequeira's existence every day as she dealt with her | | | | abuse and neglect, Sequeira kept hope that her |
| husband's alcoholism. She loved mild-mannered Richard | | | | husband would eventually realize he had a problem, |
| Lopes and witnessed how alcohol changed him from a | | | | and seek treatment. He never did...always believing he |
| loving family man with a successful business to a | | | | was just having a few drinks with his buddies after a |
| careless, angry, abusive drunk. | | | | hard day's work. Sequeira takes her share of the |
| Written like dramatic fiction, Someone Stop This | | | | blame for all the times she could have kicked him out, |
| Merry-Go-Round: An Alcoholic Family in Crisis is a fast | | | | demanded he got help, or pressed charges for the |
| paced, tension-filled account of a woman's tireless | | | | abuse. I found myself cheering for her, hoping that in |
| effort to keep her family together, her two children | | | | the end Mr. Lopes would choose to save his marriage |
| safe and to protect her own mental and physical well | | | | and his family. Despite being divorced from Mr. Lopes, |
| being. Sequeira gives an honest telling of life married to | | | | Sequeira suffered greatly when he succumbed in 1985 |
| an alcoholic-a life filled with sadness, fear, pain and | | | | to the damage done to his body from a lifetime of |
| despair. | | | | drinking. |
| Sequeira didn't believe in divorce and was too proud to | | | | |