Great American Smokeout

I remember in elementary school our health class listened to comedy tapes from Bob Newhart and Bob Hope and it mentioned smoking. Then our teacher handed out an illustrated booklet about how smoking is bad and we should never start. That was in the late 70’s/early 80’s and I think back then they didn’t know how devastating the impact of smoking, even on occasion, would be on the body.

I didn’t need the speech. My parents both smoked, and in the house. Their generation didn’t know the effects of smoking, in fact, marketing ruled and everything they saw and were told was that smoking was trendy, fashionable, glamourous, and kept you focused and trim. By the time my sister and I were in school, we knew the truth.

It was our job every year to clean the ceiling tiles in the kitchen. There was nothing glamourous about what we saw. Those tiles were supposed to be pristine white. They were tar brown.

By the time I was a teen, the ill effects of smoking were becoming more recognized and I hated every second of my parents smoking. I begged, pleaded, whined for them to stop. They admitted it wasn’t that they didn’t want to, they just could not. By the time I was eighteen, we at least convinced them to smoke in the garage.

When I went to college I honestly looked down at those who smoked, even if it was just at parties. I hated it. Although I certainly didn’t walk away from alcohol at the time despite the alcoholism in our family, smoking was a deal breaker for me.

When I married, I learned my husband was a smoker until he accepted Christ, which honestly was weeks before he asked me out. I remember being so bothered by it because although older than me, he had to know how bad it was for him and those around him.

Our kids were raised in a smoke free environment. When grandparents visited they could smoke outside, but we wished they would not at all. By the time our daughter was born, she had chronic health issues where we nearly lost her. A month after that, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was dead shortly after his sixty-forth birthday.

My mom was widowed at 60. Because of smoking.

I saw his last hours. I can still hear the oxygen rhythm and the pit in my stomach. Working as I did for a time with senior citizens, I remember visiting nursing homes and there was a distinct smell of death. I walked in and smelled it. I knew, knew it was his last day on earth.

I recall being the last to speak to him in a way he was able to respond. The morphine was administered for pain. His muscle spasms and jerks haunted us for years.

There is nothing fashionable or glamourous about smoking.

What was most difficult to accept was after that, mom still smoked. Not as much, but she was only able to stop in the last couple years of her life. Although lung cancer wasn’t her cause of death, smoking absolutely contributed to it. She was in shock at the toll it had took on her body when the doctor explained everything. After everything she admitted she just thought it was a bad habit with no toxic effects to worry about.

I blame smoking for why my sister and I are left without parents. Sure, they were senior citizens by government definition when they passed, but neither made it to 80. Dad didn’t even make 65. We were robbed of years with them. You can’t convince me otherwise.

One thing about our choices that we rarely take into consideration are the long-term consequences. All the fast food as teens and young adult can lead to high cholesterol. Eating sugar all the time is a sure way to a diabetic diagnosis. Drink alcohol to excess for years on end and you’ve soaked your liver. Smoking is the same. You pick it up once and the ability to stop is not easy. Yet each day you say no after you’ve started, there is redemption for your body.

My parents aren’t the only ones who had health issues because of smoking. I get chronic sinus infections and bronchitis. I’ve had pneumonia more than once. My doctor asked if I smoked and when I said absolutely not, he asked if I had been around second hand smoke. That is so toxic. I remember mom asking me why I get so sick all the time. I didn’t have the heart to tell her. But I think deep down she knew.

Please, please, PLEASE. If you smoke in any capacity, and VAPERS, I put you in this category because the lungs deteriorate at a faster rate, please seek help. The Cancer Society has resources. Find an accountability partner. Do whatever it takes to stop. Your life depends on it.

Julie ARduini

You are too precious to lose.