I know I know that all former
smokers are goodie, goodie two shoes and at times way too critical of the few
still smoking public.
But today it took all my
emotional restraint to not say something, while waiting for Hubby, out in the
car, in the Morton Ace Hardware Port Charlotte parking lot, when I saw a woman
pull in, in a white Range Rover smoking one of those girlie thin cigars with a
holder. The woman was older, perhaps around my age, ok real old, with also
enhanced blonde locks, but pulled back in a ponytail. She had parked her SUV in the
opposite direction of our vehicle, but right in the next slot. She got out and
opened the passenger side door and it appeared that there was some type of
black bag-like object on the seat. At first I though it was an infant seat and
she had a grand-baby with her, but I was wrong for she hung the bag on her back
like a backpack while pulling the clear plastic tubes out of it and attached them to her
nostrils… She either had COPD or Emphysema, boy was I baffled.
None of my business, I kept
saying in my head.
Many’s argument would be, as
I have heard most recently that the damage is already done and so why not?
But REALLY?
Who knows if I would’ve been
so foolish too?
She seemed to be handling
herself fine, no one was with her and she apparently knew how to fix things
otherwise why would she be at a hardware store… as I said none of my business,
and anyway our car was running with the windows closed for the
air-conditioning was on…
Nope, none of my business to
say anything, besides she went into the store and Hubby was coming back out.
WHEW!
What luck; you see in the old
days I might have been more tempted to say something, but ya know I could
relate to this obscene act of harming one’s self, she has every right!
Like the one man said to us
that we see at the gym, he survived a coma after a head injury and has been
using a walker and works out the same days we do, he’s a couple years older
than us and a NJ guy too and so we chat often.
His wife has the same cancer
that Valerie Harper has, and was told she has only six months to live; she’s a
year older than me and is a smoker.
I was trying hard to be
helpful when he mentioned all this and so I went online to find out info for
him about protocols and online organizations and more places like cancercenter.com
and even finding out Valerie Harper’s doctor’s name and his hospital so maybe
they could find out what worked for her to be doing so well, with her lung and
brain cancer, allowing her to be on Dancing with The Stars. Oh Valerie Harper, an
actress and comedian who made her fame from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, playing
the best friend Rhoda and got a spin-off show of her own called, Rhoda: to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Harper
And when we saw him I gave
him what I accessed and he sincerely thanked me.
The next time we saw him he
said that she didn’t want to do anything, she was all done and that she even goes
outside to still smoke. And he and we said that at this point I suppose it
doesn’t matter anymore, but not the words out loud that "the damage is all done"… but still, he was devastated
that she had given up. So we all changed the topic and that seemed to help.
People out there don’t know
that not all lung cancers are from people who smoke, some get it from second-hand
smoke of course and some even get it from chemicals and pollution.
Valerie Harper was not a
smoker.
And I do believe she said 60%
aren’t or it could have been 40%, I may have gotten that backwards.
Any-who, this month is Breast Cancer awareness
month and it is extremely important for all women to check themselves monthly
for any changes in their breasts from; http://www.breastcancer.org/
Ages for certain tests should
be there as well as how men should also be aware of what they should look for
in signs and symptoms not only for the women they care about, but for themselves too.
Please people take care of yourselves;
many cancers if caught early enough are curable! And so take the steps to make
sure you are screened for as many as you know that could be in your realm. I
almost said family, but even without family genetics involved many cancers just
happen at any age.
Now don’t get all scared, but
be diligent and cautious, not paranoid or hypochondriac, just smart and aware.
On that note of all types,
allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and
ask you kindly to count all of your blessings and share all of your overages
and we will too!
And next time please be here
or be square, ya hear!
PS day 4 of the shutdown, no nice comments and so I am holding my tongue.
And
that poor woman who was shot yesterday in D.C.; again someone with mental
health issues and was overwhelmed, sad ending for a person who really just
needed mental health intervention, no weapon was ever found, since she had none
and she was scared.
Question to any who might know: Why is her child not given to
her surviving parent, her father, or even the grandparents; why is that child
being held in protective custody? Too many questions still unanswered.
Hopefully, over the next several days, we will know more…
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