Help for a friend, please? Wife of an alcoholic. [View all]

A respectful hello for allowing me to intrude on your space here. If you can give me any help, it would be most appreciated, as this situation is not good.

My best friend of 26 years is married to an alcoholic. They have been married for 15 years and have 2 young daughters. He is a functional alcoholic. Everybody around them, and I do mean everybody, has known her husband was an alcoholic since they started dating. They finally had a huge blowup this weekend and he "figured out" he is an alcoholic. My bff says she is surprised. *heavy sigh* The reasons for her denial are too long and too complicated to go into here, but obviously the denial is thick.

She has moved out of their bedroom and is unsure of how to proceed next. He said 3 days ago that he would start going to AA, but of course, that turned out to be an empty promise. He now says there "isn't any time" because he's working too much. Their marriage has been on the rocks for a long time. She openly hates him. Affairs have happened. It is a bad bad bad bad bad situation all around. She is scared to walk because of abandonment issues that again, are too long and too complicated to go into right now.

I advised my friend to pretty much put him in the car and drive him to an AA meeting and walk him in the building and then wait in the parking lot. Of course, my advice could be totally wrong, because I've never been married to an alcoholic. I also told her that she needs to get herself to an al anon meeting right away. She has a private therapist that she sees weekly.

I am at a loss here. I want to throw the woman a lifeline, anything. Books, websites...blogs? Anything. Her husband is all lovey dovey and all "ooh I love you I'm so sorry" honey right now. I don't think he's stopped drinking and said as much. She claims she doesn't know. *heavy sigh*

I am so frustrated. Please advise. I love this woman like she was my own sister.