I was never a smoker. I tried a few times when I was a kid, but was afraid of lighting a match, so that sort of kept me away from it. My ex smoked from the age of 12. He was up to about 4 packs of Lucky Strikes a day. He had a bad accident with a skillsaw one day at work and for some reason, I think being in the hospital for a short time and not being able to, he quit smoking - cold turkey. Less than 2 years later, he died of lung cancer at the age of 53. In Dec., he had danced at our daughter's wedding. There was no evidence of illness. In March, he got sick with what seemed like a bad cold or flu. He became very hoarse and didn't seem to be getting better. My daughter told him to go to the doctor. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and scheduled for chemo and radiation. He made it to our sons birthday party at the end of April, began the chemo by the 1st of May. He couldn't understand why this was happening because he "had quit smoking." The damage had already been done, of course. He died in the middle of August. None of us expected it to be that fast. He died at home and was on Hospice care at the end. The kids were with him. I had been there earlier myself. I used to tell him that he was going to kill me with his second hand smoke. I still get angry when I think of how every time I bought him any kind of t-shirt, it had to have a pocket for those stupid cigarettes and all the times he would "be out of cigarettes" and I'd have to run to the store and get him some and how I was supposed to remember to throw an extra pack in my bag when we went out at night. (Even though he was the smoker, I was supposed to remember to bring them.) I should have "forgotten" once in a while.

I, too, would like to think people who watch this would never, ever smoke again. Working in a healthcare facility, it never ceases to amaze when I see people who see this stuff all the time smoke, but they do.