A MOTHER REMEMBERS

Mary Symeta spent a lot of time drinking, from the time she was a teen, through the birth of her daughter DeeAnn, and more than 25 years after that. She knows because DeeAnn had just turned 25 when died in an alcohol-related motorcycle crash. Only then, Mary said, could she begin the long, slow climb out of her overpowering addiction. Symeta said the details of the crash will always remain crystal clear in her mind. DeeAnn and a friend had been drinking in a small town in Colorado. His motorcycle was traveling at 100 mph when it hit a concrete median. DeeAnn was thrown 250 feet, landed face-down in a ditch, and declared dead at the scene. The rider lived, spent a year in jail and five years on probation. Symeta said there are three people responsible for the crash; her daughter, the driver, and "me, because throughout her life, she never knew me sober. What she learned from me was its okay to drink and drive because that's what she saw me do throughout her whole life."

Symeta has been sober for six years, lives in Crow Wing County, has written a book, The Consequences of Alcohol, and spends time talking to groups working for the day alcohol-related crash fatalities don't happen anymore. And she would like to see the motorcycle driver again someday, to give him a hug and forgive him.