0a3905d5_e_Smoker_s_Memorial___Page_Two__Our_Memorial_Remembrance
[#] 15 [Date] 03/22/06 [Our Memorial Remembrance] 
I'm writing about several people whose deaths and near-deaths from smoking have greatly affected my life. My husband had a heart infarction a few years back. He was in his early 30s and had been smoking for almost 20 years. Thankfully he has healed, quit smoking, and successfully encouraged me to quit too. However? both my husband's father and grandfather passed away years ago from heart disease related to smoking. I have lost one grandfather to a brain tumor, one grandmother to stomach cancer, and a great-uncle to multiple cancers, all due to smoking. My mother, a chain-smoker for decades, was put on a heart monitor a while ago when she began having complications, and it's unlikely she'll make it much longer. My husband's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. Her doctor told her that if she didn't stop smoking, she had only months to live. She stopped smoking that very day, the chemo worked, and she is now in remission. Both my younger sister and my best friend had cervical cancer in their mid-twenties, possibly due to ? or at least not helped by ? smoking. My sister has stopped smoking, but my good friend has not. Not too long ago my husband lost two friends from smoking: The first one was his childhood friend ? a short-stop in little-league baseball who was on his team, and the second one was a musician who died from sudden death brought on by a cigarette. I found his death to be the most alarming, as I have just recently learned that in rare cases, smoking even one cigarette can cause sudden death. He was just 26 years old and had been smoking for 7 years. He was talking with his wonderful girlfriend when he lit up, and died a few minutes later. Everyone who knew him was stunned. I got to meet him only once, but he was a wonderful guy. Today, I have been smoke-free for 13 days. I am in my late 30s and had been smoking for 9 years. But right now, my boss is in the hospital visiting his mother, who is experiencing congestive heart failure from years of smoking. Please send your thoughts and prayers out to her, to my friend and to my mother and mother in-law. Thank you all for contributing to this site, for keeping me inspired to stay smoke-free, and for quitting ? or at least trying to quit ? this addiction. Cris
The Smoker's Memorial - Page Two
Our Memorial Remembrance