Tragedy of a Pop Star!!

I know I'm not the first to be totally not surprised by the death of Whitney Houston yesterday. Those afflicted  with substance abuse issues greatly reduce their chances for a long life, and by her decline over the past two years especially she was no exception. I know how hard substance abuse is, having experienced it first hand and watching several relatives and a few friends fall at the hands of alcohol and drugs. The most recent experience for me is one of  my Uncles who by all accounts was the most unlikely that I thought of in my family to ever have issues. But as we all know circumstances can change a person, and I know this in many forms over my life so far. Growing up he was one of the most cheerful and funny and well rounded people one could be growing up with an alcoholic father. His decline in recent years at the hand of mostly drugs saddens me to no end. A  few times he has gotten clean and it seemed that at one point that maybe he had it beat, but life likes to trip you up sometimes and now as far as I know is trying to get clean yet again after the most  recent relapse. It seems that sometimes no matter how much love and support you have to help you in the endeavour to rehabilitate, its just not in the cards. I truly pray for my uncle's sake that  this time he will be  able to keep his demons at bay, and I won't insert a "but" because I truly want to be in a positive mode when it comes to  him. I truly don't want to have to experience what could happen, or get the call that lets me know that his childen are now fatherless. We always want the best for these relatives who fight the goodfight to get well after each round they get knocked out by the  drug equivalent of Evander Holifield. So all I am going to do is pray that he stays well and that his children don't some day fall into the same category as Bobbi-Christina does. Pitied that they had a parent who couldn't do it for them, or for themselves, couldn't lock the  door and throw away the key too, have to be reminded everyday by some measure that a part of them was now cut out of them like a botched bypass surgery. I will pray because that  is all I really can do.