The girls were settled into school as boarders and this gave time for Annie to travel back and forth but also to look at retraining into a role she was very interested in - supporting school kids who were perhaps slow at some aspects of their learning. 

Unfortunately the girls had been affected by the drinking and the chaos that can bring. UK schools have responsibilities for the kids welfare and are trained to look out for problems, have their policies and local government support. I had a call from the headmaster as the 'responsible person'. He had interviewed our eldest daughter, now 12, under the schools child protection policies. There was no danger and no physical risk at all but our eldest was unhappy and her behavior was not standard. 

Annie brushed this off. I was too worried for the consequences to address it and bring it to a head. We became more distant and I felt very annoyed but I could not get through to Annie the enormity of what was happening. Life had turned but went on. 

Incidents happened but all we could manage was a bit of family support for Annie and her consultations with the local doctor and some specialist in deep seated issues. Nothing of substance. I was too concerned that we could move into an unmangeable situation (my job had become more than difficult and rocky and the pressure at home and work was overtaking me) and Annie still had the mind set that she could command the drinking. 

Annie passed her exams in teaching and started a job. We started to talk about normal things. I was so happy to have those conversations again. 

Then she disappeared from phone contact. I was still overseas working and my eldest said that Mum was having some time out. Actually Annie was in hospital and although she told our eldest not to tell me, she had suffered liver failure.   

The girls were home with their Mum at the start of the Easter holiday. Annie had been to the dentist on the 1st April and was given very strong antibiotics for a tooth abcess. At breakfast the next morning our youngest told her Mum that her eyes were yellow. Annie knew she was jaundiced and what that meant. She took the eldest early to a prearranged sleepover and the youngest was dropped at my parents. Annie knew she had a big problem. 

After dropping off the girls, Annie went to the Doctor and was told to go straight to hospital and book into ward 15. We got over the chaos of those first few days in hospital and the problem became clear to me. She was as ever cheery and optimistic and in control. But within a week I received a text saying she felt she had no chance and this was it. It was not a warning shot. It was the start of the end. 

Annie died in hospital on the 24th of April. Our last real conversation was about a week before she died after which she slid into oblivion. Some of her last words to me were " you were right, I was wrong". That was it. She died quietly in hospital. Her organs had stopped working, her fantastic brain was poisoned from the liver damage. Her superb personality, fun, life and soul had all gone. We had no second chance.