[Astro]

I don't have the words to describe how I feel after watching that. Tragic, heartwrenching, sad, but also inspiring, so many things come to mind.

I don't have too many memories of my Mom where she didn't have a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, other than the couple years before she passed away. She gave up the cigs when the radiation treatment on her throat started. I never understood much of what she said after that, she could barely croak out her words, so everything was written down on a pad of paper. She was able to spend some time with her grandson, and at least a few months with her granddaughter, she wanted grandchildren more than anything and I'm glad we put those beautiful kids in her life. I still get choked up thinking of her holding my babies in her arms.

Mom passed away quietly during the night 10 years ago. After her death we found pints of alcohol and bottles of pain meds hidden all over her townhome, she still needed them to comfort her through all the pain. I'm glad I never saw her face after she died, that's not the way I want to remember her.

After 27 years of using smokeless tobacco, I finally kept up the quit in Dec.
'04, two months before I stopped drinking. But there are no guarantees, I take nothing for granted, cancer could be a fact of life for me in the future. It scares me to think that my kids may take up smoking someday, all I can do is lead by my example.