My family has been remarkably resistant to cancer in its many forms. My grandpa Jack died in his '90s after smoking for 83 years (12-95), died from liver failure. Also, when he was in his 70s, he fell off the hay rack in his barn and broke his back, and lie there, smoking, until his wife came out to yell at him for missing dinner. About six months later he sent my dad a wonderful card thanking him for a recent visit, and by the way could he borrow $800 because he'd gotten his physical therapist pregnant... Jack was a bit of a kidder, and my dad (other than saying "My dad is a *$(## teenager") never said whether he was kidding or not. And this being Jack... could a been, could a been.
What prevented my brother and me from starting smoking, however, was going to relatives' houses for Thanksgiving/Christmas/etc dinners, walking into the front room, and /not being able to see the far wall for the smoke/. <-- slight hyperbole, but closer to true, than not. Both my parents have had heart attacks, both have stopped smoking. rip On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Michael Hawksworth <[email protected]> wrote: > I have never smoked so I can't say anything about quitting but I watched my > Grandma (a typical heavy working class smoker of her day) die of lung cancer > when I was a youngster, that made saying 'No thank-you' to offers a doddle. > > So remember, if you want to stop your children smoking you just need to > sacrifice a loved one to a horrible death... an effective but strangely > unpopular stratagem. > > Michael.
