A vow that never went up in smoke

My dad turns 98 years young today. In five days, my mom will turn 90.

Me? I'm just a kid of 64, and my big brother Bob is 71.

Add it all up, and that's 323 years of life enjoyed by this little family. Stretch us out endto-end, and we'd pre-date the founding of our country by 76 years.

I know it's a rare deal to have both parents alive at this stage of the game, and I don't take it for granted. It also leaves me wondering, on an annual basis, what in the world I could ever give them for a present this time of year.

So today, I'm simply going to offer them a great big bow-wrapped “thank you.”

Not just for being great parents, or for working so hard, or for all of the incredible sacrifices they made along the way to provide for their family.

Nope. Today I'm going to thank them for the reason they're still alive.

They quit smoking.

And I'm talking 50 years ago.

Like a great number of adults in that era, my parents smoked, and as I recall, they smoked quite a bit. As a child, I hated the smell, but tolerated it. I didn't know any other way existed.

Who among you has memories of riding in a car, overcome by the kind of nausea that only happens when you're carsick and inhaling non-stop cigarette smoke? (Yes, they'd “roll down the windows to clear the air,” which helped. At least, that's what I kept telling myself.)

Fortunately, as my parents reached their late

30s and mid-40s, a notso-funny thing happened. Cigarette manufacturers were required to include the Surgeon General's warning that smoking was bad for your health. In other words, it caused cancer and contributed, greatly, to many other health problems.

I've known a lot of people who are heavy smokers, and some are my age or older and continue to live healthy and productive lives. Good for them. I wish them no ill will, and I hope this isn't taken as an attack on any of them; I'm just talking numbers and personal life experiences here.

What I have experienced is this: I've known only two people in my life who tried to quit smoking and actually stuck with it.

My mom was the first. My dad was the second, and I was there to see it happen.

It was early 1975, and we were at our local community center, the Flournoy Store. My dad, and several other men, were standing outside, and most were smoking. They were also swapping stories about the man who had owned that very store — and had recently died of cancer.

Cigarettes were bad, they agreed, while most kept puffing away.

That's when one guy looked at my dad and said, “Well, when are YOU going to quit?”

Without hesitation, my dad said, “Right now,” pulled the cigarette from his mouth and threw it to the ground, snuffing it in the gravel with his foot.

He hasn't smoked since. I have no idea how hard that must have been to quit cold turkey, but he did it — and is closing in on a half-century of smoke-free living.

Like my mom, he probably quit just in time.

According to Medical News Today, “Tobacco deaths will not only occur in old age but will start when smokers are about age 35. Half of those who die from smoking-related causes will die in middle age, each losing about 25 years of life expectancy.”

Also, as the CDC notes, “Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%.”

I've known dozens, if not hundreds, of other people who tried to quit. Most succeeded for a while and then failed — several times in some cases.

I've also known plenty of people who were in poor health, yet swore they couldn't afford health insurance — all while spending hundreds of dollars a month on cigarettes. Usually, that awful irony seemed lost on them.

Maybe this little story, published on my dad's

98th birthday, will help some of them to try again. In fact, I'm going to issue a challenge to all dads, and moms, and future dads and moms out there: Quit smoking, now. While there's still time. Believe me when I say your children will appreciate it.

It's the best gift I ever got. Best of all, I still get to see the living proof.