The Psychology of Smoking

My uncle Joe was a great guy. If you met him he'd have you laughing at his antics in minutes. He was a true success story. My uncle battled drugs and alcohol for twenty years and won, remaining sober and reclaiming his family in the process. He was married to my mother's sister for twenty five years and they were still in love after all of that time. He was a father to three beautiful girls and a grandfather. He had everything to live for. But my uncle Joe smoked Marlboro Reds since he was a teenager. In the summer of 2001 my uncle caught what he thought was a cold. After a few weeks it wouldn't go away so he went to the doctor. A chest x-ray revealed devastating news. My uncle had small cell lung cancer which had invaded one of his lymph nodes. It was a death sentence. The doctors gave him less than a year to live. He quit smoking immediately and battled to keep his weight up through chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He maintained his optimism and fought a heroic battle. He survived long enough to see his youngest daughter married and to hear of the impending arrival of two more grandchildren before succumbing to his illness in May 2003. 

My aunt and my mother, grief stricken over my uncle's passing warned everyone in the family who still smoked to quit. Some of us tried to do just that but within a year of my uncle's passing everyone in the family was still smoking.  Two of his daughter's, his sisters and both of his nephews mourned his death and kept smoking.  I was horrified at my uncle's death; it was painful and degrading. He lost potential decades of his life. I wanted to learn from his death. I wanted him to not have died in vain but I was still smoking cigarettes.