English Stories

Learn English vocabulary with this story
Remember, double-click on any word to find an instant definition.

No Smoking

By Truus Welgraven

When Thomas was just a little baby, he always got colds, very bad colds. Two times the cold even worsened, becoming bronchitis. When this happened a third time, when Thomas was only seven months old, the doctor decided to admit him to the hospital.
	For more than a week, we lived in a, for us, new world of oxygen masks, injections, various painful tests and a very sick baby. After all the tests were done, the doctor came with the result. He told us that Thomas had chronic bronchitis. The result came together with a big bag full of medication, masks and the book How to Live With Chronic Bronchitis.
One of the first rules written in the book was, of course, that from now on, it should be forbidden to smoke in our house. For me that was not a problem; I have never smoked in my life. My husband, however, smoked more than two packs of cigarettes every day. The same day we heard the result, my husband made a decision. He told me that he would give up smoking right away. He did not want to be a danger for his son’s health. He went to the pharmacy and bought some anti-smoking patches. When he came home, he stuck the first one on his skin and, since that moment, he has never smoked again. The good part of this story is, of course, that my husband stopped smoking. However, there is more. A half year later, the doctor had to admit that he had made a mistake. Thomas did not have chronic bronchitis after all. This time he was right, Thomas has never had bronchitis again. My son was healthy and my husband had stopped smoking, a really good ending for this story. Nevertheless, years later, the story has another consequence. When my sons heard why their father had stopped smoking, for the health of one of his sons, they were very impressed. So impressed, that they decided they would never start smoking. My sons are now fourteen and seventeen years old and no, they do not smoke!