*85 - Thanks, Tobacco: You Killed My Mom

Quote from YouTube!
"This video was created over a one-year period. At first, it was just random use of a video camera, plus a few pictures taken during a visit in September of 2006. Of course, this was before we knew that Mom had a collapsed lung. She went in for tests, and it was discovered that she had Stage IV Lung Cancer. Mom suffered a stroke, ironically on the same day as she received her birth certificate, which would have allowed her to travel to Southern California. The stroke left her left side completely paralyzed, and she was stuck in the hospital, no longer the independent woman she once was.

There was no treatment, since the cancer was discovered so late, and due to the stroke. We have since learned that often times, a biopsy can knock loose cancerous material within a tumor, which can cause a stroke. It was extremely difficult to watch her suffering in a hospital bed, and wondering why her last months had to be made that much worse due to the stroke.

First, we have done this to honor Mom's last wishes: tell people not to smoke.
Second, we have completed this very emotional project to honor her memory, and to help us as we continue through the grieving process.
Finally, we are aware that much of the anti-smoking media is not so real to life--it doesn't show the suffering, what the families go through, and the pain that cigarettes actually cause.

This documentary is "non-Hollywood". We have omitted certain things that one might find offensive, including her IV, vomiting, bodily functions, and her actual death itself, which was obviously painful. Instead, we have brought many different segments together, which still conveys our overall message: DON'T SMOKE!"