They say its about you......it's not

Good Morning today has been 6 days. I have quit previously before for 5 months but had a serious relapse in judgment so here we are again.....I have lyrics going through my head right now....Here I go again on my own......going down the only road I've ever known, like every smoker I've got to do this on my own, and I've made up my mind, I ain't wasting no more time!!!!

The reason I am here....about 2 years ago I started seeing a widower, he has three children, one was hers with her first husband and the other two are his. She passed away from skin cancer, a disease she contracted as a child after receiving a sun burn....smoking cancer no.....but cancer is cancer and I assume it matters not how you got it, it all looks the same at the end. So let’s talk about that end. Now of course I was not there, all I get to see are the "after shocks" of a life taking care of someone dying from this disease and let me tell you what that looked like.

The oldest son was kicked out of school, arrested for selling drugs. The middle child went through massive depression and cut herself until she was admitted into the hospital, the baby girl was the rock, held it all together for everyone around her, terrified of what was happening and no idea what to do. You would think she is totally fine, she acts it …..looks it, but then I have a meeting with work that is going to take me out of town over Mother’s Day weekend, then you get the opportunity to see the breaks, the heart that hasn’t healed. The heart that is clearly broken as she sobs and clutches to me begging me not to go……yes I did cancel that meeting, some things in life are more important than work.

And my husband, her husband, his entire life on hold for two years as he took care of her and tried his hardest to hold a family together that would never be the same. He was a broken man when I found him; trapped in a house that was filled with memories he couldn’t bear to look at and had no idea how to get away from.

It’s been two years, a lot of talking, a lot of therapy, a lot of tears. The cigarette packages show you smokers and what they look like and what they are going through and they need to stop that. Put a picture on those cigarette packages that show a broken family, the tears, the cut marks on a young woman’s skin, a young boy in handcuffs, that is what you are leaving behind when you smoke. Yes you damage your lungs so what, you are going to die and it’s going to be over for you, for them, they will never be the same. They are going to have to learn to live with your poor choices.

How do you want to leave your family? Stop today, your not just destroying your own life, you are also destroying theirs.