Since I was 16 years old, culminating my last school year at the Liceo Antonio José de Sucre, in Cumaná-Venezuela, I made friends with three classmates, who liked to smoke cigarettes. Since at that stage I was defining myself as an adult, I suggested that they teach me to smoke. At the beginning I choked on cigarette smoke, but in a short time I even learned to inhale it. We would invite each other to study at my house where I lived with my mother and my four siblings. When we were preparing the study material, we would smoke behind my mother's back.
She would peek out and say:
"I see a cigarette going from mouth to mouth."
We would immediately throw it on the floor and put it out with the tips of our shoes. That's how I learned to smoke. Every day I consumed a box of cigarettes. Soon after, I got married. I was so addicted to smoking.
That my children and husband begged me:
"Please stop smoking, you are making a mistake by putting your life in danger - you are exposing yourself to the risk of cancer!".
I didn't listen to them. When I turned 40 I started to feel pain in my chest, it was something like many stones falling in that area, then the pain moved to my back, I could hardly breathe. This started to worry me. My husband said to me:
"Let's go to a medical consultation with the Cardiologist, Doctor Roger Cordova". We went to his office and he asked me: "Do you smoke? I answered, a little nervous and scared.
"Yes".
How many years have you been smoking?" With my hands shaking with panic and my voice cracking, I answered:
"24 years!". He said:
"I'm going to perform an electrocardiogram, to see how that heart is" Once performed he told me:
"You have a thrombus that prevents the blood from flowing normally, you are prone to cardiac arrest".
He then continued, "The appearance of your heart is similar to that of a 70 year old woman" He added:
"You have committed with that dependence on tobacco a big mistake in your life".... Adding he underlined:
"If you want to die soon, keep on smoking".
My face was unhinged, my hands were sweaty with fear, I lost my speech, panic invaded me. The Cardiologist indicated a medical treatment. When I got home I told my children the diagnosis the doctor gave me, and showed them the medical treatment he indicated, then I apologized for not listening to his advice to stop smoking. They hugged me and said:
"Calm down, with the favor of God, our Lord, all powerful and your medical treatment you are going to be cured" .
Then I went to my room and there I talked to God.
"Lord give me the strength and will to stop smoking".
... "Our Lord, all powerful, my faith is in you. If with these medicines I am cured, I promise not to smoke again". Years have gone by and I have kept my promise, to this day I have not smoked a cigarette.
Thanks to God, medical science and my willpower I was able to determine that I made a mistake in my life. I learned from that mistake to say no to smoking.
Today I am 72 years old and in good health.
This is a non-fiction story
I hope you like it
the drawings are mine
use deepl translator