Clifton, three of my brothers quit because they wanted to. The fourth one quit because he had to- every time he lit up, he went into coughing spasms. It is now 25 years later- he is 68- and he has emphysema with one lung that keeps collapsing and he has had to check into the hospital any number of times the last few years. As of two weeks ago, he is in a nursing facility.

I attended a stop-smoking clinic several times before I quit. In one of them the doctor said, "Dying by lung cancer is a kind death compared with dying from emphysema." The problem is that one can breathe in but cannot expel the air. (Quiet, Spaw!) That accounts for the barrel-chested look so many smokers get.

That brother had smoked 3 and 4 packs of Luckies (HA!) a day for 30 years. It was not until 7 months after he quit smoking that I stopped- I knew that if he could survive quitting, so could I.

Sorry about the horror stories- would you believe that this is the first time that I have preached about it? But it's true.

Good luck to you all.

Ebbie