| A girl came up to me yesterday and asked if I had a lighter. I just stared at her in disbelief. The kid couldn't have been older than 12 or 13 years old, and there she was with a fag in her hand. She had a smug grin across her face. It was obvious that all her friends thought she was so cool. Unfortunately, I didn't. I was about to give her a lecture, but she just gave up and went back to her friends again. As she walked, I could see she was not happy about the glare I had just given her. But I had my reasons. My grandparents were happily married, for a long time, until my grandmother stopped smoking - for good. She died in her sleep from a thrombus, a blood clot, it would never have happened if she hadn't smoked. Now it's my grandfather's turn, 12 years later. It has finally caught up with him. It started as a small cough, evolved to chestpains, and now it has reach the final stage. Lung cancer. My grandfather is dying. Not because he's old, he carries his age quite well actually. He is dying because he couldn't say no. When he realised the dangers of smoking it was already too late. Even now when he is dependent on a tank of oxygen just to be able to breath, when he is coughing blood and has a morphine drip on a constant flow into his vain, he still needs that smoke. The addiction is so strong he feels like he's dying if he doesn't get his daily dosage of nicotine. The one thing killing him is the only thing that keeps him alive. Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. It's sick and it's tragic, for the most part tragic. My mother is losing her father, my unborn children will never meet their great grandfather. All of this because of one bad habit he couldn't rid. Unfortunately, a very deadly habit. I hope this scares some of the people reading this, I hope some smoker's read this, and get scared. I'm scared because I've seen the state my grandfather's in. A man who has been my big strong feisty 'scared of nothing' grandfather has been reduced to the shaking, pale, scared of dieing, bloodcaughing shadow of the man he used to be, in just a couple of months. So when that girl, not even in her teens, asked for a light I didn't know what to say. I wanted to tell her about the dangers of smoking, to tell her how many die everyday, to tell her what my grandfather's going through right this minute, but I didn't know how to. My words got lost in my surprise. She caught me off guard. So I'm writing this in case maybe some of the other thousands of smokers should happen to stumble upon it. And I hope it makes you think about what you are putting your body through. You should. |
| A very deadly habit by Cecilie D. Haug |
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