THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610260005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 26 lines
If what I am writing will cause just one person to stop smoking, it will be worthwhile.
My wife was a smoker for 30 years, over two packs a day sometimes. After 17 years of marriage, as I held her hand and with tears falling on her pretty face, I watched her breathe her last breath.
I looked in her eyes when she told me she had cancer in her lungs, and it spread to her brain and liver. I watched her with needles in her arms when she took chemotherapy. I watched her as she had 22 radiation treatments. I watched her when this treatment paralyzed her right side. I watched her when she suffered and tried hard to live. Our children, all grown, watched their mother as she drifted away. She was still young at 58 years.
The doctors said all this was caused from smoking. Now as I sit here all alone, I hope and pray all you smokers will picture what I am going through and stop so your families and loved ones won't be going through what I am going through.
LLOYD G. BLAYLOCK
Chesapeake, Oct. 8, 1996 by CNB