As people born in the 1940s, my husband and I often thought that life’s BIG moments included celebrations like birthdays, graduations, marriages, and childbirth. Over the years, we have discovered that life’s truly important accomplishments often seem insignificant until decades later, and sometimes it takes others to remind us of them.
On October 19, 2025, I reminded my husband that it had been 40 years since he stopped smoking. In 2015, I wrote about our journey with this habit. We didn’t know the dangers of smoking when we were kids. If you read our story, you will learn that he began smoking at eleven years of age.
Please share our story with the young people in your lives. Also, celebrate every little accomplishment with those you love. Our scrapbooks contain photos of parties and gifts we gave Gord to celebrate his determination to stop smoking at one week, one month, one year, five years, and now every decade. Each Christmas, we put a little train engine on our tree that reads 1985. The decoration reminds us of the childhood story The Little Engine That Could. The little engine reminds me of Gord and his perseverance.
This Christmas, on our 55th wedding anniversary, we celebrate the fact that Gord is probably alive because he stopped smoking. I had to remind him that forty years had passed, and a celebration was in order. Thank you to Lung Saskatchewan for helping us celebrate.
READ OUR STORY! SHARE OUR JOURNEY!
