15 years. So much has been missed.

    I remember as early as 5 asking my parents not to smoke (not just because they also did it on a roadtrip with my two sisters and myself in the back of the Dodge Coronet station wagon with all the windows rolled

up, although looking back, that in itself is an excellent reason!)

  The tactic of asking never worked. Not even close. I tried marking their cigarettes with a line 1/3 up from

the filter and asked them to stop there (with the intentions of moving it up gradually as this project progressed). It never progressed.

  My mother died in 15 years ago today in 1999 at the age of 64 of inoperable lung cancer/breast cancer.
It was a horrible death with extreme sickness, pain and loss of dignity at times.

There is so much she missed being a part of and we missed having her experience with us.

  Some of the things she missed by leaving us too soon are:

• Seeing the calendar change to the year 2000 (Not a great big deal now but in '99 it was a milestone)
• Six of my grandchildren
• Two of my sister's grandchildren
• Gladiator with Russell Crowe (She'd have loved that!)
• My sister's success as a producer on 'Say Yes to the Dress'
• My older sister's marriage
• My increasing successes as a photographer
• Words with Friends (She was a wordsmith)
• FaceTime
• 10 Wimbledon titles by either Venus or Serena Williams and 7 by Roger Federer

....and so much more. You get the point.

  They say (you know who they are, don't you) if you are going to quit smoking you have to do it for yourself. I disagree. Do it for those who love you and want to share as much life as they can with you.

  Before you light up again look at your kids. Now imagine their lives without you.
Besides, think of all the money you will save! Over $2,000 per year if you are a pack a day smoker.

It says on her marker "Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die."
We keep the ones we lose alive with stories, memories and photos.

On my mother's birthday, June 27, I celebrate her with happy stories and a short list of motherly quirks.
On this day I will go the other way in the hopes of getting someone to change their potentially life ending habits.

  If you have someone in your life that loves you please think about them before you light up and maybe take a day off. Perhaps that day off can parlay into another day off of smoking tomorrow too.
If you don't have anyone in your life that loves you then smoke away.
Dying of lung cancer is obviously not going to be your biggest mistake in life.

Portrait made at age 16

She was petite even with heels.