Shortly after building my house, Mom and Pop came up for a rare visit in December, 1969. As Pop walked off to have a cigarette, Mom started to cry. "What's wrong, Mom?" She said, "I think your dad has throat cancer."

He did. He was a three-pack-a-day smoker. Mom smoked one pack a day. This habit was started long before Sis and I were born. As a child through adulthood, Sis, with severe asthma, had to inhale that smoke. She always complained about it and it definitely aggravated her asthma. Parents, as well as other family members who are smokers, need to consider the rest of the family, especially when smoking indoors and especially with someone around who has breathing problems, like asthma.

As a result of his smoking and the onset of throat cancer, Pop had to have an operation to be able to feed himself through a tube in his throat. The doctor said to him and I quote: "Start up smoking again and you'll be dead in six months." After that warning, when convalescing in the hospital and later at home, he stopped smoking. Maybe he had a death wish or perhaps he really couldn't kick the habit, but he started smoking again. Six months later he died of lung cancer. Mom said it was an agonizing way to go. I wonder if they ever thought about their smoking habits, especially with a daughter with severe asthma. To make matters worse, most of the time they smoked indoors in the house.

I had to live in that situation as well; I became sensitized to cigarette smoke at an early age also. No, I never got asthma, thank God. But to this day, some thirty-four years later, if anyone lights up, especially indoors, I get a coughing spell that doesn't want to quit.

In my opinion, smoking in public places, like restaurants, or wherever people gather, is a selfish habit. Yes, there are smoke free restaurants, but what about the bar in the restaurant or any other public place for that matter. If one has to smoke, go outside and get your nicotine fix.

Better still, get help and kick the habit. You might enjoy life more and you just might save your life. Kicking the habit is probably one of the hardest things anyone has to face. I know of many friends who smoked and through pure will power they were able to stop smoking and never smoked again. Others I know have repeatedly tried to stop and they failed every time. And like Pop, in their failure to stop, they faced an agonizing death.