Every time I see a smoker, he reminds me of a dragon… with smoke coming out of his mouth; his nose; the ears of him and probably places where “the sun does not shine!” I have zero tolerance for smoking and smokers! How someone can voluntarily put poison in their bodies and call it enjoyment gives new meaning to the word ignorance!
I quit smoking in 1970, and for over 38 years, I haven’t touched a cigarette or any tobacco product, and I don’t intend to either! There are millions of Americans who have struggled to quit smoking… and finally quit… only to start again months or years later! Why would anyone want to do this?
I am not a crusader or a preacher of anything, and I can’t do anything, if a person wants to commit suicide… one puff at a time… I can’t do anything, etc. So if a person wants to smoke…go ahead…it’s in his right. I don’t like smokers around me, and they can do harm in other places! Smokers know the risks of smoking… and I have no sympathy if a smoker dies from smoking. I can’t sympathize with someone who puts poison in their body.
I can’t understand some people’s bad habits and behavior, like what I recently saw at the VA Medical Center. I had a doctor’s appointment and saw a nurse or therapist smoking on the patio. You don’t see many healthcare professionals smoking, so this behavior intrigued me, so I sat for a few minutes and watched her smoke. Boy, while she was sitting there…she was smoking like a freight train…she was lighting one cigarette with another etc.
A few days later, I was back at the VA on business, and I saw this same woman on the patio smoking again. Only this time, I found out what she does at the hospital. Do you know where she works? As a respiratory therapist! Can you believe it? She’s probably seen more deaths from smoking than anyone else in the hospital…yet she smokes like a freight train herself! Incredible! She has probably helped more people put plastic tubes in their noses than anyone! If this is true…then why does she smoke herself in the first place?
“I tried to quit smoking cigarettes, telling myself I just didn’t want to smoke, but he didn’t believe me.” barbara kelly
I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), and right in the middle of the city, it’s where I-40 (Route 66) and I-25 (Pan American Highway) intersect and it’s called “Big I” . As you can imagine, this is a very busy part of the city. I live about a mile north of the Big I, and there is a large electric sign, which was put up by an organization, that shows the number of deaths from smoking each year across the country.
The numbers on the electric sign are big… and they go on and off… and change every few minutes. At the beginning of the year, there are zeros because there are no deaths… but at the end of the year, there may be around 220,000 to 250,000 smoking deaths across the country, which is incredible to me!
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Sabrina and I worked at the same company for about 18 months. One day, we were in the yard taking a break, when she said to me, “Jerry, I hate you!” I asked her why she hated me, and she said, “I’m 38 and my face looks like a dry river bed, with cracks and wrinkles and crow’s feet all over it, and you’re 50.” and you don’t have any wrinkles on your face… and that’s why I hate you!” I’ve been hated in my life for many things, but never for not having wrinkles on my face! I knew Sabrina was kidding, of course, and i told him that having smoked a lot for 15 years had something to do with his outward appearance.i am not a doctor but we all know that smoking affects both the internal and external body etc.
I told Sabrina that all the makeup she wears contributes to facial lines and that she should get rid of it and go more natural etc. But, she probably cakes on makeup to cover all the wrinkles etc. Women who wear a lot of makeup look like plastic dolls, in my opinion. All those chemicals block the pores of the skin and do not allow the skin to breathe.
Sabrina quit smoking before she met her, but after smoking heavily for over 15 years, her body had taken its toll. Sabrina did not know that her days were numbered! About a year later, the company closed and everyone went their own way. Sabrina and I only knew each other at work, so we didn’t hang out. But, when we broke up, I missed her, because she was so good to me.
“I’m really not a chain smoker anymore. I only consume two lighters a day now!” Bill Hicks
My parents divorced after 48 years of marriage. She was 66 years old and my father 70 years old. My father helped have ten children, and he didn’t care about any of us, and all of us children hated him, because he was sinister and evil. One day my mother called me and told me that my father had died. So? Who cares! I never had a father! My mother told me that my father’s name was in the obituary section of the newspaper. I really didn’t care.
But, something kept bothering me… bothering me that day, and I don’t know what it was. Something told me to go to the obituary page of the newspaper! But why? If I went to the page… what was I looking for? I didn’t care about my father’s death, so why would I go back to the obituary page? I tried to put it all out of my mind, but I couldn’t! So, I went back to the obituary page, and I scrolled down the page and the list of people…and…OMG! There was a name on the list that I recognized right away… the name was “Pettis” and that was Sabrina’s last name! Oh my god… a chill washed over me immediately along with a feeling of emptiness inside! Could this be Sabrina? I quickly closed the newspaper, and I did not want to know! But, after a few minutes of confusion in my head… I had to find out if she was Sabrina or not! I couldn’t leave until I found out!
So, I went back to the page… and to my horror… IT WAS Sabrina! I felt a lump in my throat as I continued reading… indeed, she lived in Los Lunas; she worked in the Sheriff’s Department; and she had recently married. I was numb… Sabrina couldn’t be dead… I told myself! I put the newspaper aside… Sabrina was dead! I felt horrible!
“Sooner or later… everyone quits smoking!” Unknown author
I didn’t know how she died, whether it was accident or illness, so I called a mutual friend and she told me that Sabrina had a common cold, which turned into the flu very quickly, and then she was rushed to the hospital. hospital with pneumonia, which spread rapidly and in just three days, Sabrina died! It all happened in less than a week!
The death certificate probably said she died of “pneumonia” but smoking was a big contributor to her death! The smoking weakened her lungs; the arteries of it; his heart…everything, and so much so that he couldn’t defend himself! The best doctors; The best technologies and the best medicines will not help the person unless he can fight back!
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When a person wants to quit smoking, they have two gigantic tasks ahead of them. First, they have to find the “mental toughness” it takes to quit in the first place and never start again. Then they have to give time for the body to clean itself of all the mud; pollution; tar and not knowing what else the smoker put into the body! All this takes time.
I’m not a doctor, but in Sabrina’s case, she’s been a smoker for over 15 years, so it could take 5-10 years to clean all that sludge out of her system, etc. We all catch colds and the flu from time to time…so when a person quits smoking, that’s not the end of the danger…it could just be the beginning! Sabrina had already quit smoking for over six months when she died, but the contamination in her body persists for a long time!
Over the last year or so, I had moved to the south side of town, and one day I got in the car and headed to the north side of town. I forgot about the electric sign near the Big I, and when I walked past it, it reminded me of Sabrina. As I drove past the sign, she told me Sabrina had put one of those numbers on it, and I promised myself I’d never drive like that again! Sabrina died in 1996, and more than ten years later, I still think of her from time to time, and she will always have a place in my heart.
“We design our lives through the power of choices.” ricardo beck
Red, white and blue gives us all the option to stay healthy and avoid cigarettes. But sadly… Sabrina chose to kill herself… one puff at a time… and it took her 15 years to do it! To smoke or not to smoke… THE CHOICE IS YOURS!
GOD BLESS SABRINA. REST IN PEACE!
