Here we memorialize, remember and pay tribute to wonderful lives cut short by chemical dependency upon smoking nicotine. May remembrance of our friends and loved ones inspire youth to never start, smokers to quit, quitters to stay the course, and ex-smokers to relish life.
Use the above link to share your memorial remembrance of a friend or loved one. Although not necessary, feel free to include a picture if so inclined. If you do not want your e-mail address shared please so indicate.
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Date |
Our Memorial Remembrance |
| 6 | 05/07/05 | On May 5, 2005, Ruth Ann Clark, my daughter-in-law's mom, died of lung cancer. She was a smoker since childhood, and had tried many times over the years to quit. In February she was diagnosed with stage 4. I stopped in to visit her not long after that and found her smoking and weeping at her inability to stop. She was on the "patch" at her Doc's advice, and was in such a state of disgust and despair over her relapse. She knew that I had finally sucessfully quit and asked for help. I shared all the great info I've gleaned from this site with her, and I'm proud and happy to say that she spent the last month of her life in freedom from her addiction. She knew it was too late to save her own life. I think she did it as an act of recovering her soul, and to set an example for the smokers around her. I have done alot of hospice work, and have seen addicts asking for their fix literally on their deathbeds, and there is nothing sadder. Though the cancer was destroying her body, she had a glow about her, and a sense of winning though it was too late to save her body. She was smart and funny and passionate and beautiful. She is loved and missed by all of us whose lives she touched for too short a time. She was only 57 years old, and left us way too quickly. I know that it's through the grace of God, that I'm not in her position, and I'm eternally grateful to all of you here for helping me finally break the chains of my addiction, just when I had nearly lost all hope of ever stopping. Love and life to all |
| 5 | 05/04/05 | I've smoked for 6 years. My father smoked for 30+ years. He was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer in 2003. He made it just about a year. His cancer had spread all over his body. Well... I continued to smoke, with every intention of quitting because of my dad. I didn't get it. I never got the actual quitting part down. I finally got the strength up while on a trip with my family. I had realized that if my dad hadn't been a smoker, he would still be alive today. I realized the irony of it all. How I'd been so hurt by his death, yet I continued to do what killed him. He was an awesome man, though. He always played Santa at our Christmas celebrations. I miss him dearly. As does everyone who knew him. I know how much he grew to hate cigarettes and smoking... and I owe my quitting to him. He didn't even know I smoked, and I'm glad that he didn't. I miss his voice, his face. RIP, Dad. |
| 4 | 04/30/05 | My father died from an aneurysm twenty years ago, in September 1985. I wish I could go back in time and show him the WhyQuit and Freedom sites, and educate him, and also the doctors. He became ill in the '60s when I was about six years old. I remember he had difficulty in walking and would have to stop every hundred yards or so with pains in his leg at the ankle. He was having circulatory problems and by 1971 he had to have a leg amputated from just below the knee after suffering lots of pain.
He was a smoker and continued to do so. The doctors said that he should stop as it was considered to be a contributory factor. I now totally one hundred per cent believe it was a total factor. But in the '70s the health service was in denial. The amputation did not relieve the pain as he then suffered phantom pains as if the limb was still there. Worse was yet to come as his other limb started to play up and he used to get large abscesses which had to be drained and began to suffer from gangrene. I can still remember the smell of rotting flesh. In 1978 he had to get the other limb removed from below the knee. But it wasn't long before they had to operate and cut from above the knee. If smoking was the major cause then my father suffered 30 years of pain for the so called "pleasure." He didn't just lose his life in September 2005, he lost it in the mid sixties to a cruel and, at that time, well sold and sponsored addiction. Hopefully this story will demonstrate that addiction doesn't always result in a quick death but can result in many years of misery. John Ross
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| 3 | 04/27/05 | On April 20, 2001, my father, Robert Prince, went to see a doctor for what he thought was gallbladder stones. They did x-rays and found that he had a tumor in his right kidney which was cancerous. His right kidney was removed on April 31. At the follow-up visit after surgery we were told that the previous diagnosis of kidney cancer was false. That in fact he had lung cancer that had spread to his kidney. On May 15, 2001, eleven days prior to my 18th birthday, part of my father’s lung was removed and they started him on chemo. Originally, from the day he was diagnosed in mid April, my father was given six months or less to live. He beat those odds but not for long. Everything was okay until September 2003 when he started going downhill fast. He was being severally medicated 80% of the time and didn't know where he was half of the time. In December 2003, on Christmas evening, he made a comment to me and my brother that we needed to go to sleep because Christmas was tomorrow. I was 20 at the time and my brother was 18. Sadly, he was so medicated and out of it that he completely missed Christmas. A few days after Christmas we went to see hospice and checked him into one of their centers where he stayed for two days. They released him to us and we were told to make him comfortable. He didn't want to die in the hospital. Hospice came daily and took care of dad’s meds. On January 9, 2004, he woke-up complaining that he couldn't feel his feet. They were completely blue from his calves down. We called hospice and my dad's entire side of the family showed up to help. I couldn't stand being in the house, so I took my then 7 month old son out to his fathers house. I came back around 6 p.m. that evening and had my son's father keep him overnight so I could take a nap. On January 10, 2003, at 12:10 a.m., my father passed away. My mom woke me up about 15 minutes afterward but I already knew. I called my son's father. He told me that a few minutes after my dad had passed away that my son looked up at the ceiling with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes, and was waving goodbye. I truly believe my dad stopped to see my son before he left. There was no way that my son or his father could have known until I'd called to tell them. My father smoked 3 packs a day until the day he died. He started young, 13ish I believe. He was only 41 when he passed. He left a loving wife, two kids and a grandchild. |
| 2 | 04/26/05 |
Kim and her loving sister Kelly both quit upon news of Kim’s cancer. They arrived at Freedom from Tobacco, WhyQuit’s quitting forum, in the Spring of 2002. During the next two years they’d remind the forum’s 3,000+ members of what the ultimate battle was all about. For many, it made the challenges of quitting pale in comparison. As Kim told members on March 8, 2004, “Believe me everyone, withdrawal was and is so much easier than this 2 year cancer battle I have been fighting. The craves disappeared, the cancer hasn't.” We lost Kim on June 23, 2004 but not her spirit or her message. We invite you to read Kim’s story at this link. She would have wanted that. It’s only fitting that this new WhyQuit memorial page be dedicated in honor of Kim, the most courageous Canadian many of us will likely ever know. We miss you, Kim! John R. Polito |
| 1 | 12/29/04 | Hello Folks. My name is Mike, and with the help of WhyQuit / Freedom, their fantastic managers and members, I crushed out my last half-smoked cigarette on 12/5/2000 and I know that since I'm only one puff away from a full-on relapse, I'll never take another puff. I tried really hard to encourage my parents to quit, to the point that they were getting angry with me. They chose to not follow my good example, and just said "yeah, I'll quit some day"(sound familiar?). Any way, this is how it played out. I'm sharing my story with you in hopes that you are either inspired to continue your fight against nicotine addiction, or are encouraged to do the smart thing and not start at all.
Both of my parents were very smart, and they kept very neat records, their cars were always perfectly maintained, and their grass was always cut. Never were they even a day late in paying a bill, never did they fail to save that portion of their pay for their futures. The day finally came when they retired and moved to South Carolina, where they put in a swimming pool to honor a promise they had made to their grand children that they loved so much. Two years or so went by and my mother developed a dry, nagging cough. This cough stayed with her for quite a while, but despite my father's begging, she refused to go to the doctor. Finally, after dealing with this cough for several months, she finally went for help, and that's when she got the news: She had inoperable, non small-cell lung cancer and was given six months to live. Her oncologist told her that chemo might help, so they did their best to fight it, but she died in the hospital almost exactly 6 months after the diagnosis. At the time of her death, I never would have recognized her if someone didn't show her to me. She was only 62, but she looked 92. I stood there with her, holding her hand as she passed slowly away, and believe it or not, even at this moment, she was in denial about what was happening. She still never thought it could happen to her. My poor father, who was also a heavy smoker, died suddenly, just 18 days later as he was lighting a cigarette in the wee hours of the morning. He had laid dead for 2 days before his maid came by and found him. He had died where he stood. Left behind are his 2 sons and his 4 grandchildren who miss them terribly and who may never fully recover from this shock.It sounded almost romantic at first, that he had died of a broken heart, but I know the truth was much more grim and ugly. So here we have 2 sadly typical tobacco-related deaths. One, the most feared lung cancer, the other we're not exactly positive but the doctor said it was probably a stroke, a heart attack, or an anurism, all of which can be attributed to tobacco use. So please, find it within yourself to keep on fighting the good fight. The tough times really do pass before you know it, then you just need to constantly be on guard against complacency and remember to not take another puff. It truly is great to be able to fill my lungs all the way up with air again!! By the way, I've also saved well over $10,000. Quit simply, there is no reason to smoke. Mike Kidd |
Kim was 44 when diagnosed with lung cancer. The last thing she wanted was for her name, picture or story to end up on some Internet memorial such as this. She knew that if it happened it meant that she’d lost her battle. But this proud brave lady was anything but a loser. The 
My parents were married for over 44 years, and they traveled all over the world. My father actually was part of the Apollo program, which always made him seem kind of super-human to me. My mother was very well liked where she had worked for over 20 years, and she was quite beautiful. My wife, 20 years junior, was even jealous of how gracefully mom was aging.
