Back in December of 2005, I got pneumonia. Nearly spent Christmas in the hospital--imagine explaining that to your seven year old, huh? I have not had even one drag off one smoke since then. A couple of months into my quit, I came across the story of Barbara Tarbox while hanging out on the (life-saving) About.com Smoking Cessation support forum.
Barbara was already dead by the time I learned about her. She's been dead almost ten years now. That she is still reaching people? Amazing. What she'd hoped for. If you're looking for inspiration to quit, watch this. If, like I was, you don't think you can or don't think you want to? Watch it anyway. If you have kids? Show it to them--it's incredible.
I cried the first time I saw this. Deep, to my heart crying. I found it again tonight, and I cried again. Please watch this. Please share this with anyone you think might benefit. I never knew this woman, and yet she feels like a friend. A friend who wanted to save my life.
If you are like I was, you're saying to yourself, "I'm not going to watch that, it's stupid/lame/melodramatic/biased/manipulative/insulting." Or worse, you won't watch because you "already know all this." Wake up. The reason I wouldn't have wanted to watch it is because I lacked the courage to take an honest look at my addiction--I had all the excuses for why I wouldn't watch/read/listen to anything that showed smoking for what it is. But fact is, I was afraid.
My aunt died of lung cancer. She died from smoking. I made a cross-country visit and watched her. Watched her do it while I was still fresh in my quit. Watched her light up smoke after smoke as she choked, as she rubbed her sad, fuzzy head, as she struggled with the simplest of tasks and slept on the downstairs sofa because she was too weak to make the stairs and see the upper floor of her own home. Too weak to sleep in her own bed or bathe in her own tub. Poor her, and her poor family, too. Poor all of us. That's cigarettes.
And hey, if you "already know all this," why are you still smoking? I thought I knew it all, too. I was wrong. Watch this and cry. Feel it. Make her YOU. And then save your life while you still can.
Barbara was already dead by the time I learned about her. She's been dead almost ten years now. That she is still reaching people? Amazing. What she'd hoped for. If you're looking for inspiration to quit, watch this. If, like I was, you don't think you can or don't think you want to? Watch it anyway. If you have kids? Show it to them--it's incredible.
I cried the first time I saw this. Deep, to my heart crying. I found it again tonight, and I cried again. Please watch this. Please share this with anyone you think might benefit. I never knew this woman, and yet she feels like a friend. A friend who wanted to save my life.
My aunt died of lung cancer. She died from smoking. I made a cross-country visit and watched her. Watched her do it while I was still fresh in my quit. Watched her light up smoke after smoke as she choked, as she rubbed her sad, fuzzy head, as she struggled with the simplest of tasks and slept on the downstairs sofa because she was too weak to make the stairs and see the upper floor of her own home. Too weak to sleep in her own bed or bathe in her own tub. Poor her, and her poor family, too. Poor all of us. That's cigarettes.
And hey, if you "already know all this," why are you still smoking? I thought I knew it all, too. I was wrong. Watch this and cry. Feel it. Make her YOU. And then save your life while you still can.
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