The Kool corral

Did you know that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States? The only other thing that causes more deaths is heart disease.

Twice as many women die of lung cancer as breast cancer.
Three times as many men die of lung cancer as prostate cancer.

And the survival rate is still at about 15%. It's been this way for decades.

The statistics are staggering. How come not enough is being done for lung cancer victims?

I miss my mother. I miss her voice. She left a message on my answering machine about a month before she died. I kept it for the longest time. It was so comforting. It was something so simple - something like 'Hi, Lisa. It's mama. Just calling to chat. Call me when you get a minute'. It was heavenly to have a mother. Even after her death, I still had something tangible when I listened to her voice.

I don't have a mom anymore. I don't even have the recording of her voice. I want to blame someone for her death and I don't know who to blame. I blame my mom for starting to smoke. I blame the tobacco companies for making cigarettes so deadly and so increadibly addictive. I blame myself for not being able to get my mom to quit smoking. I blame societal pressures - my mom was a young adult in the 1950's when smoking was seen as cool. She went to school at the University of Minnesota where there were ashtrays within reach of every chair in the classrooms.

A freind of mine read this blog and commented that I seem really angry. Guess what? I am really angry. I'm pissed as hell. My mother is gone and I can't nail the blame on any one source. Placing blame on a tobacco related death is about as elusive as cigarette smoke itself. It just can't be corralled. And it makes me want to scream.