He Wasn’t About to Quit the Cigs

We went up to see dad. Pearson was in the room. He said dad could go home in afew days. He said in a week they’d start the radiation treatment. He wrote out a prescription for some pills and that was that. We stayed awhile. Dad was sittin’ up in bed smokin’ like a fiend. I didn’t see him strike a single match. He’d just take each burned down butt and light the next cig. A nurse come in. She looked around the room and then went over and raised a window. She said, “Phew, we sure don’t want that smoke alarm goin’ off do we?” She laughed. We didn’t think it was that funny. We were just too tired and wore out to joke any more about dad’s smokin’. It was awful to watch him crumple that many empty packs in one afternoon.