Posted by Duffless at hide101.suffolk.edu on March 10, 2003 at 15:12:03:
In Reply to: This is a great example... posted by Vincent on March 10, 2003 at 15:04:53:
I am really glad your mom quit...and the statistics are good for people who quit, after a few years the lungs really can clean themselves up a lot. It is never too late to quit, even in my moms case her not smoking towards the end probably got us another year with her. Thanks for you nice words!
: - of how smoking harms others beside the smokers (even discounting second-hand smoke)- it hurts their familes when they get sick.
: Drunk-driving is obviously a big problem, and it is illegal with stiff penalties. However, when I take a drink, I don't exhale my alcohol into other people's bodies. There is no such thing as "second hand alcohol". When somebody is smoking in proximity to me, I am by default smoking as well, because that smoke travels through the air.
: Regardless, my post down the board wasn't preachy nor did I shove anything down anybody's throat. I simply made a point re: smoking and used my mom as an example.
: Anyway, this is all I have to say on the subject, I'm not going to keep debating it and arguing with pro-smoking zealots who have nothing better to argue or be passionate about.
: I'm very sorry to hear about you mom, Duffles. I hope you and your family are doing okay.
: Vincent
: : My story is much like Vincents......his mother quit after smoking for 40 years...that is FANTASTIC...hopefully she can keep it up.
: : My mother quit smoking after about 35 years, unfortunetly it was when she felt a lump in her neck...she quit that day and never smoked again for her entire life, which was only another 2 years. It was too late for her, so until you see your beautiful mother start wilting away and live the rest of her life in pain at the age of 53..to have to worry if she'd see her son graduate from Highschool, to be upset because she'd never see her daughter marry or see grandchildren, to see your mother's brilliant mind reduced to nothing as the cancer spread to her brain, to have the doctors tell you that her body isn't digesting food anymore because it is shutting down...think about those things when you tell people not to worry about smoking....smoking caused all of these things to happen, she knew the risks, maybe not as a teen but later in life, but she just couldn't quit....
: : Sure other things kill people and harm people, drinks, drugs, scud missles..what have you....but why get on someones back for writing on a board about how smoking is harmful...people can do what they want, and smoke all they want, hopefully they will find a way to quit.....hopefully smokers will be able to hold their grandchildren.....
: : This is personal for me, very personal...and I don't often share this information, and maybe it is too raw for me....maybe i'll make it board related....my brother and I went to see jay and bob during her last week of life, cause we needed something to make use laugh and had to get out of that hospital..and it work, so thank god of Kevin smith....he made me laugh when not much could....
: : So if people want to post about why smoking is bad, and just one person rethinks their choice, I'm a happy woman