![\"http:\/\/www.freeimages.com\/photo\/1022198\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/No-smoking.jpg\" "\\"http:\/\/www.freeimages.com\/photo\/1022198\\"")
<\/a>I watched my\u00a0mother’s three-pack-a-day habit rob her bit by bit over the years. Shortness of breath. Not being able to walk more than a block or two. Coughing fits that sounded like being strangled.\u00a0Oxygen tubing snaking through the house. Gasping for air. Then, mercifully, considering the\u00a0death by\u00a0slow suffocation possibly in store for her, my\u00a0mother succumbed suddenly at home when her heart gave out.<\/p>\nThat was nineteen years ago. My mother was 71. Just this week, my\u00a0brother Dave died in much the same way at age 65. He was a good man, generous, funny, with the proverbial heart of gold.<\/p>\n
My eldest brother and I spoke the day after about a lot of things. At some point, I asked him\u00a0if\u00a0he was still smoking. Yes, came the answer. My brother\u00a0said he had two cigarettes left before he had to buy another pack, and he wasn’t yet sure what he was going to do. I\u00a0jotted down this little thing, somewhere between a poem and a plea, and sent it to him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I watched my\u00a0mother’s three-pack-a-day habit rob her bit by bit over the years. Shortness of breath. Not being able to walk more than a block or two. Coughing fits that sounded like being strangled.\u00a0Oxygen tubing snaking through the house. Gasping … Continue reading