'Smoking killed me' sign placed on hearse, grave

[onehandle]

Source: AP

LONDON – A smoker who died after battling emphysema has had his dying wish granted with the placement of a "Smoking killed me" sign on his hearse and his grave.

Albert Whittamore blamed his youthful smoking habit for the lung disease.

He said before he died at age 85 in February that he wanted the sign to serve as a warning to young people about the dangers of tobacco smoking.

The sign was designed to look like the health warning on a packet of cigarettes.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_dying_wish

[hobbit709]

1. He lived to 85?!

[Deep13]

2. "He said before he died at age 85..."

Sorry, that struck me funny. I appreciate his message and his willingness to go public with it. I'm sure he would have prefered not to spend his last years coughing up his lungs and hooked to an oxygen tank.

[onehandle]

5. I read on the BBC website that he had a lot of pain and discomfort for decades.

And that he died relatively young compared to his other family members.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

3. he died at the age of 85?!?

While I'm no fan of tobacco addiction (I smoked 2 packs a day for 15 years before I quit) I'm not sure that living to 85 years is going to serve as effective warning.

[Zoeisright]

9. Do you know what it's like to die of emphysema?

It's like slowly drowning to death. You can't draw a deep breath. And he was crippled by it for decades.

Christ.

[dugaresa]

4. emphysema is an awful disease and he may have had it for a long time

it probably ruined his quality of life.

i had a cousin with it who from age 65 on had to carry a tank around and could not even laugh without having some problems. modern medicine gave her almost 20 extra years but it wasn't all that great.

[sui generis]

6. I intend to have "living killed me" on mine

it inevitably does.

To each his own - but I really am tempted to get crass here and offer an entire list of cutesy "________ killed me" observations.

[ixion]

7. Apparently he never read the warning on the side of the box...

He killed himself, really.

[Blecht]

10. 50 years ago he was 35

There were no warnings on the box in 1960. Doctors were used in ads telling everybody how smoking made you healthier.

Are you really that stupid?

[ixion]

14. Ask a stupid question...

you know how it goes... or maybe you don't.

[Heidi]

8. It's his funeral.

I have no problem with this.

[InkAddict]

11. Mines gonna say: "I freely smoked, but my vote was stolen...Going to a better place."

[951-Riverside]

12. He made it to 85?

My friend's dad died at the age of 53 and he wasn't a smoker actually he was a very active person too.

[Tailormyst]

13. He was 85..........

Old age killed him. Smoking helped make his last decade or so painful.

[Blue Owl]

15. He could have prevented his own death if he didn't smoke.

Oh well, hindsight's 20/20...

[pitohui]

16. he was 85, i'm gonna tell you a secret, he was gonna die ANYWAY

all power to him for doing his part to help discourage others from taking up the filthy weed but honestly he out lived the life expectancy for a man of his generation

[SoCalDem]

17. and hey.. he might have lived to the ripe old age of......

85:rofl:

[Behind the Aegis]

18. At 85? I'd say the Grim Reaper got his ass, not Joe Camel. But, it is his "party."