"Thanks Tobbacco, you killed my mom!"

[SeekSobriety]

Sometimes we need a real wake up call a real eye opener.
This home video entitled "Thanks Tobbacco, you killed my mom!" is a real life account of a son recording his mothers last days at a young age in her mid 50's. The mother had been a lifelong smoker and was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She deteriorated in a short few months and wanted her son to document her struggle to prevent the youth and people in the future from having to go through what she went through.

This is a very heavy 5 minute video but should be required viewing for anyone having second thoughts of continuing to smoke. We should at the very least understand what we will be putting our family and ourselves though.

Viewer Discretion is advised: YouTube - Thanks, Tobacco: You Killed My Mom

[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.

[SelfSeeking]

I quit. I have smoked my last cigarette. Thank you Charlotte.

[ElegantlyWasted]

Made it to "my mom just died 3 minutes ago". Think I'm gonna try quitting again right now. Powerful stuff.

[SeekSobriety]

You can totally do this, We can learn from Charlotte, she wanted her sons to spread her story around so that we do not have to suffer as she did.

It is much easier to fight nicotine addiction now on our terms then to battle cancer and emphysema. We do not need to wait until it is too late! For what? What on earth does Nicotine really give us, a few seconds of a rush, a momentary lapse of reason, is it worth the 7 dollars a day minimum not counting the health costs. Is smoking worth 49 dollars a week! Almost 200 dollars a month! And that is just being a pack a day smoker, if we smoke two packs a day we are looking at 400 dollars a month! $400 dollars a month!
For what!? Something that will kill us and cause us to suffer and our families to suffer while they care for us. Not to mention burial costs etc. Is it really worth all this?
I think we have been duped by the cigarette companies and thankfully for us we do not have to walk down the road that Bill Wilson and so many other AA people did of dying not from alcoholism but from Smoking related illness/cancer. We do not have to go down the road that they did, they may not have known just how much of a drug nicotine was back in those days, but now we know. now we certainly know.
There is no denying this fact. Even the cigarette companies openly admit to it now and even warn us of this fact on the cigarette packages.
Is this all worth our $7 to $14 dollars a DAY!?

It all begins with Now,
This breath we can decide to be free from the drug nicotine and the poisons of tobacco. This breath we can decide to walk around the block or walk up a flight of stairs, to drink a nice cool refreshing lemonade or pineapple juice. To have a nice cool glass of water or a warm cup of herbal tea with some honey. This breath we can decide to take a healthy break and not walk back into the office reeking of smoke and stinking up the room. This breath is ours!

Thanks for letting me share.

[CatsPajamas]

My brother filmed something very similar. Our mother died in February at the age of 80. She smoked from the time she was 15 years old and she never wanted to quit. She liked her cigarettes. I'm not sure she ever allowed herself to make the connection between smoking and the need to be on oxygen 24 hours a day, unable to go anywhere or do anything without losing her breath, ultimately dying from the effects of smoking.

It's a powerful statement. I wish more people would watch it and make the decision to save their own lives, and improve the quality of life for themselves and their loved ones.