Myfather drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes every day for 45 years. At the age of 64, he suffered a stroke — and died in the hospital two weeks later.
In the end, he was a shell of a man, shrinking further and further into himself. The years of drinking and smoking had wreaked havoc on his body and his brain.
It was gut-wrenching to watch him waste away in the last two weeks of his life. He was unable to speak — getting thinner and weaker each day.
I’ll never know the answer for sure, but I’ve often wondered how much smoking had to do with it, and how much alcohol was to blame.