My Dad Quit Cigarettes in 1984. To Doctors, He Was Always a “Smoker.”

My Dad Quit Cigarettes in 1984. To Doctors, He Was Always a “Smoker.”

Last month, my father died. I miss him deeply, and I always will. He was nearly 84. Married for over 53 years, he raised two children and adored two grandchildren. He was also a friend and a business owner. But in the medical world, he was often seen simply as a smoker.  He started smoking as a teenager in the late 1950s, when it was the norm. In 1984, when I was 12 and he was 43, he quit—a noteworthy decision at a time when 43 percent of Canadi…