Three years ago Dec 3rd I lost my father to a smoking related disease. It was a slow, unpleasant death. Please, if you smoke, spare yourself from this death, give it up now.
When he was young he said “Its my body, I’ll do what I want”
In the early part of his disease he said “I know men who smoked until they were 80, smoking doesn’t cause this.”
As his disease progressed and he was gasping, struggling for breath he said “This isn’t life, its not living. I’m just waiting to die.”
It was horrible to watch.
One of the worst moments of my life was when he lay in his hospital bed gasping for breath and he looked me in the eyes and said: “I’m scared.”
Someone else close to me, a good friend, died 11 years ago of lung cancer. In the end, he was begging God to take him, it hurt so much.
Emphysema took both my grandfather and FIL, and shortened my grandmother’s life - truly a horrible disease.
I put up a big poster in my school for the Great American Smoke-Out every year (this year was November 16th). I try to get as many kids and teachers as possible to sign a pledge to either give up smoking, or never start.
It always saddens me how many teachers don’t want to sign…
From the movie about the tobacco industry, “The Insider”: “It costs a penny to make, sells for a dollar, and it’s addictive!”
I lost a favorite aunt to cancer in her 50’s. My folks gave up smoking cold turkey when I was pre-teen and they lived to 81 and 90. Thanks Mom and Dad. I never started but had to breathe second-hand smoke in my last job. Sorry for your loss, Khadaji.
Mr. Legend has decided to quit this Friday (he’s got a Plan, and he’ll be going out of town to execute it). I’m doing everything I can think of to help him out without being annoying, and it’s my dearest hope that he succeeds. If anyone prays regularly, it couldn’t hurt to add him in.
Nothing to add, except that I lost my grandfather (actually my step-grandfather, but closer than any other member of the family except for my grandmother) to smoking-related congestive heart failure when I was 11. In the short time I knew him when he was healthy and active, he taught me to pick locks, play chess, shoot a pistol, tie a bowline, navigate on land and sea, identify the stars, change a tire, lay brick, tell a real diamond from fake, tie and bait a fish hook, start a fire, befriend a strange dog, calculate mechanical advantage of a block and tackle, and many other things I can’t even begin to list. I wish he’d lived longer; maybe he’d have taught me actually useful skills like how to befriend strangers, strike a bargin, deflect an insult, and talk to girls. (He was especially good at the later; for a guy that looked like a cross between Drew Carey and Auric Goldfinger he could have the waitresses swooning over him.)
Stop smoking; it’s not cool, it’s not hip, it’s not fabulous, and it’s not worth it.
