Shirley Wagoner remembers her big brother sneaking out to the woods behind their St. Maries home when he was a teenager to smoke cigarettes. “In the ’50s, it was cool,” she said. “It meant you were grown up.” Her brother, Dick Case, finally managed to quit 10 or 15 years ago, but by then it was too late, she said. Case, a substance abuse counselor and poet who lived in the Coeur d’Alene area, died Jan. 8 at age 74. He blamed smoking for killing him, Wagoner said. Three days after his memorial, a friend of the family stopped by the Panhandle Health District in Hayden with a plastic bag containing more than $500 from Case’s sister and daughters. Wagoner said the family also offered volumes of Case’s poetry at his memorial service for a voluntary donation and added that money to the pot. The money was donated to the district’s Smoking Cessation and Prevention Program/Alison Boggs, SR. More here.

Question (for smokers and former smokers): Why did you start smoking?