Souvenirs I Still Cherish --- Helen Stanberry’s Story: Chapter 5

Souvenirs I Still CherishHelen Stanberry’s Storyas read by Lindsey Beth HummelChapter 5Breathing SmokeThey say that there is a forest fire burning just east of Deep Gap. The wind is blowing the smoke over here to Todd.We should not be having forest fires; the mountains always get plenty of rain, especially in the spring. But this year has been different. Almost no rain in March, April, or May. And temperatures have been really hot, above 90 every day last week.I’m noticing the fire because my lungs are so bad. I can smell the smoke whenever I walk outside. It just cuts into my lungs. I am keeping the windows closed, but it still seeps in through the cracks.If I have any regrets about the life I have lived, it is my addiction to cigarettes. Now my lungs are so bad, and the fires over in Deep Gap just make things even worse.I have smoked cigarettes since I was sixteen, well before it was considered proper for Southern women to smoke. Some of the men I dated smoked, so I did. There was no reason why.  Neither of my parents smoked, but they never prohibited me from doing so. I was a rich girl who never followed the usual social rules. I did what I wanted when I wanted to. Once I started smoking, once the addiction licked in, I never stopped.When I was teaching, I never smoked on school grounds. Still, I only lived three blocks from the school. I had a cigarette in the morning, none during the school day, but several in the evening. On non-school days, I smoked all day.====Music performed by the California School for the Blind Jazz Ensemble