MSPs Monica Lennon and Miles Briggs have penned heartbreaking letters to their dads as part of a new campaign aimed at reducing the stigma that surrounds deaths due to alcohol and drugs.
Both politicians lost their dads to alcoholism.
The MSPs’ letters are included with 14 others on the See Beyond – See the Lives – Scotland campaign website, and are the two are due to front a reception in Holyrood later this week.
In his letter, Mr Briggs, the Conservative MSP for Lothian, admitted the “difficult few final years” of Dad Jim’s life, meant the family did not speak enough about him.
“We all miss you but also know the pain watching you try to deal with and hide your drink problem from family and friends – from bottles hidden in the garden and around the house, the difficulty in holding down a job and for the family the worry and concerns we all felt over what would come next," he wrote.
He added: “Since you died you’ve missed so much. You’ve sadly not had a chance to meet your granddaughter or see your grandsons grow-up into fine young men.
“We probably don't speak enough about you as a family - that's partly because it can often return to what was a difficult few final year of your life.
"Dad, you know you weren’t perfect, but then which one of us is.“
In her letter, Ms Lennon, who lost her father, Gerard, to alcohol in 2015, a year before she was elected to Holyrood, spoke of accompanying him to AA meetings in the southside of Glasgow as a teenager.
She wrote: “A whole lot of life happens when you are waiting for rock bottom. Part of me always believed that you would fall so hard that recovery would follow. There were times it was too difficult to be around.
“Too many days when it was too painful to run to you. On those dark days when we were apart, I hope you know you were always loved.”
She added: If you’d lived one more year to see me elected to the Scottish Parliament, it would have been a special moment for us to share. Instead, I seek the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
“You showed me how to stand up for people and just causes. Thank you for believing in me and helping me find the courage to change the things I can. Having the wisdom to know the difference is still a work in progress, so I will be back soon for a chat, bringing you flowers and singing along to the ‘Dad’ playlist.”
The initiative comes after three consecutive years of rising numbers of deaths from drugs, and two for deaths from alcohol, across the UK, with Scotland showing the highest rates.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here