It started out at a ski resort at least a decade ago, if not longer. Our actor, who is a comic actor and hovers between A and A- depending on how often he is working was at a party at a resort. He was doing what he did then which is party a lot. A whole lot. As in passed out. As in woke up the next morning on the floor at the party. On the couch above him was a woman who was wide awake and doing lines of coke. He said something about it being a little early and she said it was better than a cup of coffee.
They both hung out and talked and exchanged phone numbers. After they left, they didn't talk again. It was probably six weeks or so before our actor got a phone call. A hospital was going through the woman's phone looking for people who knew her because she had overdosed and someone had dropped her off at the emergency room entrance. Our actor was the first person who answered the phone. He barely remembered who she was but said he would go to the hospital and help them find someone who knew her better or a family member.
Our actor went to the emergency room and went through her phone until he found a cousin who knew someone who would come stay with the woman. The person arrived and our actor went back home. A few days later, the woman called the actor and thanked him for what he had done and invited him to lunch to thank him. Our actor met up with the woman and over the course of the afternoon got absolutely blitzed to the point of incapacity. The woman led our actor to her car and managed to get him inside. She didn't know where he lived so took him to her place and let him sleep it off.
The next day, they both decided to go to a meeting. They did this every week for years and years. Even when they slipped, they still went. They were the first call each other made when they had slipped or in a bad spot. It was probably five or six years before the woman even knew our actor was a pretty big star. She didn't have a television and rarely went to the movies. It was when she was laid up in a hospital and saw a marathon of a show he was in that she finally saw how famous he was.
Our actor has had some really big missteps, but the woman was there for him. She nearly died multiple times and he was there for her. Always pushing each other to be sober, but never judging. Apparently, earlier this year, the woman died of an overdose. Our actor, always the supporter, paid for the funeral and started a scholarship in her name and also created a foundation to help people pay for rehab who couldn't otherwise afford to.
