Grateful American by Gary Sinise

Author:Gary Sinise
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-01-03T16:00:00+00:00

When George Wallace finished, I was set to play Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Moira started to go to AA meetings in Malibu. I flew to Chicago and began rehearsals on the play, and once the show was up and running, the plan was for Moira and the kids to come out for a visit.

In those days you could go straight to an airport’s gate to meet an arriving party. The kids came off the plane first. Moira came last. She’d been out of rehab for about six weeks, but as soon as I locked eyes with her I knew she’d been drinking again. You get to a point where you can spot it a mile away. I thought, Oh boy, what now? I didn’t want to fight or argue while they were visiting me, so I rationalized. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this was a onetime thing. She’s going to be all right. Maybe it was just one little drink on the plane to calm her nerves.

Moira and the kids stayed with me in Chicago for ten days. She was okay the entire time, so I kept rationalizing, thinking her drinking on the plane was a onetime thing. They flew back to California, and I continued with the play until it finished a few weeks later. When I came home, I started to find alcohol around the house again. The amount I found wasn’t as much as before she’d gone into rehab, so again I rationalized, hoping things were going to clear up and get better.

I was still talking with the psychologist, and he warned me to be careful. I was just about to start my next part, a costarring role with Nic Cage in the movie Snake Eyes. Part of the movie was to be shot in Atlantic City, another part in Montreal. I flew to Atlantic City, and later Moira joined me for a few days—without the kids, who were with my folks. Moira and I stayed in a casino hotel. There were shows and booze everywhere. On one of my nights off we saw the great Patti LaBelle, a fantastic show, and we had a great time. Moira drank a little on the visit, but she never got drunk and everything stayed under control. It was a wonderful visit, and I hoped the worst was behind us. Perhaps, I thought, she was now able to have a glass of wine without drinking until she passed out. She flew home and all seemed well.

Right before Labor Day weekend 1997, the Snake Eyes production moved to Montreal. Moira and the children went to Lake Tahoe to visit friends. Late one afternoon my phone rang. It was nine-year-old Sophie, crying. “Daddy—Mommy’s drunk again. She keeps drinking vodka and telling me it’s water.” We were both silent for a moment. Sophie loved her mom so much, and her heart was breaking. Choking through her tears, Sophie whispered, “Daddy—I don’t know what to do.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.