Smokers are playing Russian Roulette with each cigarette they light up. My sister-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer of the appendix, a silent, rare, yet deadly cancer. Cancer does not run in her family. No one else in her family smokes. I know there are people who have smoked all their lives and lived into their eighties. I realize that cancer has no prejudice and strikes those who don't smoke; but surely, with all the scientific evidence available, any smoker would know that lighting up makes them an easy target.

Within 24 hours the doctors removed her appendix. Her ovaries. The lining of her gut. Half of her intestines and whatever else they could scrape up. Small tumors linger, embedded into her remaining organs and tissue. Since they have removed every organ that could possible be removed and then some, they can't dig anymore out of her without killing her on the surgery table. They're hoping chemotherapy will kill the remaining tumors.

I've never been close to my sister-in-law; therefore, I'm spared the physical and emotional pain of losing a loved one. However, her children, a boy 15 and a girl 13, are not. My brother is in agony. The future of their family and her parental family have been turned upside down and spat upon by an unforgiving and deadly disease. While I might not have loved her like a sister, I very much love the ones who love her. I will feel their pain; and I will be helpless to shelter them from the grief. She is a wonderful, talented and vivacious person. She is very much loved by her friends and family. The impact of her imminent death will be devastating.

I sure hope that cigarette was worth it.