Wow, sorry to hear this.
i grew up with my dad drinking sun up to sun down, made good money but drank it all up. Best I can figure is he fell into a bottle when him and my mom split up, stayed there for a very long time. Had a brother get killed in a motorcycle accident in 93, my dad moved back to the home town when that happened. My mom and him got back together shortly after and he never took another drink. Lost him to lung cancer (ironworker) (actually help build tower 2 at the World Trade Center) in December 2010, lost mom in January 2012. I think she died of a broken heart.
Growing up i tried to get him to stop drinking but was not successful. Best I ever did was to stop him from driving drunk by snatching the plug wires off his brand new truck. When he sobered up he stood over me with a belt until I got the plugs wires back on correctly.
I sure miss him and her.