One Day At A Time

I grew up in the eighties and remember mom and dad smoking in the house, in the car, just about everywhere. I remember thinking I was cool just like mom and dad as I blew out the smoke from my candy cigarette. I have flipped through child hood photos to see myself as an infant in my mother's lap as she holds her cigarette between her delicate fingers. The sad fact is that I lost both my grandfather and my mother to lung cancer. Both of them were life long smokers. I did what every kids does after learning that tobacco is bad for you in health class, I went home and gave my your killing yourself speech to my parents, which only aggitated them. After my mother was diagnosed with cancer I watched her slowly drop weight from her already naturally thin frame. I saw her wince in pain and lose enjoyment of life. I remember telling her about the electronic cigarette and how it has no tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide or any of the 4,000 harmful chemicals in tobacco cigarettes. My hope was to