I had a similar situation in my early Army days. I worked in a unit that had it's own bar, so after hours, you could have a drink for cheap, as booze was tax free for the military. Of course we had boozers/abusers who'd stay there every night until 10 pm when the duty barman had to close up.
One guy, John McKenzie, was a drunk. All his money went on booze and horse racing, so his wife, a nurse, raised their kids and paid the bills, while John acted like an 18 year old, propping up the bar each night, holding court, then driving home drunk.
I was duty barman one night (it was a rostered duty) and John was there as usual with the other bar flies. The phone rang (no cell phones in 1982) and a very angry Mrs McKenzie was on the line looking for John. Now this happened all the time, and the standard operating procedure was to tell her that he'd just left, so I did that, but she replied, "Don't lie for him, he doesn't deserve your loyalty, put him on."
I passed the phone to him, and he looked really pissed off as he went thru what sounded like a standard reply, "yes love, leaving now, blah blah blah", as she gave it to him over the phone. He then threw the phone back at me, finished his beer and stormed out.
He outranked me, so I couldn't tell him what I thought of him, but I think he got the idea. As far as I know, he eventually drank himself to death, pretty common in the services.
