Sitting alone, trying to find air.
She hugs him and watches,

Afraid of the mask that covers unshaved whiskers.
They both feel death in the room,

Senseless, cruel.

The image of the painter with smoke rising from

The pallet, replaced now with nothing but waiting.

Only the struggle for a breath that used to be free.

Stolen moments that can't be replaced.

The cost of a pleasure ending in ashes.

Once hooked, the average smoker is unable to stop for seventeen years! And every year, they will spend $1200 or more on tobacco products, to maintain their addiction. What could you buy with the money you would save in two years? Your first car, perhaps?

For information about how to quit smoking, follow this link.

Tobacco Stories:

Patrick Reynolds was the first tobacco industry figure to turn his back on the cigarette makers.

He's a grandson of the tobacco company founder R.J. Reynolds, but the family's cigarette brands, Camel and Winston, killed his father and eldest brother. Here's his story.

My parents were divorced when I was three, and for six long years, I didn't see my Dad. Now a boy needs his Dad to come to the football game and say, "You played well, son. I'm proud of you — you're my boy!" He needs his Dad's hugs, encouragement, guidance and love. I didn't have that, and it was hard for me. A girl needs her Dad, too.

For six years, I really missed him. When I was nine, I got the idea to write him a letter. It said, 'Dear Dad — I want to meet you. Where are you?' He was traveling at the time, and amazingly, my little letter was forwarded seven times from city to city. By a miracle, it got into his hands, and he sent for me. I remember the day I first got word he wanted to meet me, and I was jumping up and down with joy.

When the big day came at last, and they showed me into the room where he was, I was saddened to find my Dad lying down, on his back, gasping for breath. He was dying from emphysema, caused by smoking the cigarettes that made our family wealthy.

I only got to see him on five visits after that, and every time, he was increasingly sick and frail, and counting the time he had left to live.

My Dad died from smoking I was 15. That's largely why I chose to turn my back on my family's former tobacco business, and why I'm devoting my life to the anti-smoking cause, and to educating our young people about cigarettes and smoking. That's why I founded the Foundation for a Smokefree America.