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I remember hearing of an aunt’s father pass away due to cigarettes.

He was a heavy smoker. I don’t know how many packs he smoked, but he smoked enough that he wouldn’t give up his smoking habit even though he was diagnosed with cancer.

I was 5 or 6 at the time.

He was always coughing, this uncle. He was a stern man, with a sterner daughter. He frightened me as a child.

All I can remember of him was that he was thin. And arrogant. At the very least, he did not seem to care that he was smoking himself to death.

I never went for his funeral. It would have been quite odd if my family did, as the his daughter was my uncle’s wife. Made more sense for the adults to go. The kids went to school like normal.

I remember listening to someone complain loudly that if it were not for his smoking, the uncle would still be alive. I know my mother has used that argument on my father several times. And he has attempted to quit.

But he goes back.

And you know what?

It’s his choice.

Many of the people who are smoking today realise that smoking is bad. They know it harms themselves, and the people around them. Smokers are reviled.

That they continue to do so is their choice.

So today, I will leave you with some small food for thought:

If you do not want to be exposed to secondhand smoke, which Wikipedia suggests causes cancer and the like… What makes you choose to stay in that situation you dislike?

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Original entry as appearing at Ink to Screen.