[Aliantha]

What's upsetting me is my friend's dysfunctional family. My friend is almost 50 and has three kids of her own, daughter 25, son 16 and son 13. She also has been her niece's legal guardian and mother since she was about 3 after the death of her sister and brother in law. She also cares for her invalid father and has part time care of another nephew who's parents travel for work constantly.

Anyway, it all works pretty well most of the time except when Daughter Emma comes home again because she gets kicked out of her accommodation. The problem is, Emma is an alcoholic and causes all sorts of strife in the house from stealing and lying to just being plain abusive and ugly when she's drunk (which is most days). She's lovely when she's sober, but you have to get up pretty early to see that.

My friend has been battling breast cancer. she also has lupus and a couple of other health issues, so life for her is challenging enough. I try to support her as much as I can, and be supportive of the other kids when Emma is on a bender, but it's very difficult. Even the little I can do is not much, and nowhere near enough.

I'm not sure how else I can help other than to give the others kids and my friend a soft place to land when they need it.

Is there?

eta: Today I was at my friend's place, and Emma had been drinking all morning. Around lunch time, I had to go in an separate Emma and Casey (niece) because Emma was getting stuck into her and Casey was bawling her eyes out. By the end of it, I was in tears too. And what really shitted me off the most was that Casey's nana died only a couple of days ago and the funeral is tomorrow. I know alcoholics don't give a shit about stuff like that, but it's still heartbreaking to witness.