The Last One!

“Well that’s the last one!” said Maggie, my wife.

‘What do you mean?” I replied.

“I just finished my last cigarette.’ She answered.

“R-i-g-h-t, until you buy another carton.” I caustically replied.

“Nope! That’s it! I quit.” She answered.

It was just a week before her 51st birthday. In spite of years of both her children and I telling her of our desire for her to quit she continued a three to four pack a week habit. After 35 years, we had given up in trying to convince her that smoking was a bad idea. Then, out of the blue, on Feb. 6, 2002 she made the statement “That’s the last one” I could hardly believe it. I know my wife, if she says something then it is going to happen, but I also knew how hard it is to break a habit especially one that had both a physical and psychological hold on an individual.

A week later, we celebrated her birthday and she continued to be smoke free. I had recently attended a Dr. Michele Borba session where she had indicated that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. With that in mind, I arranged to have some flowers delivered on her twenty-first day of being smoke free. While I was in the flower shop, I saw some Boyd’s Bears. They were cute; one seemed to beckon me to add it to the flowers. Little did I know what a journey that single bear would take us on.

As spring turned to summer, a special occasion, like our anniversary, would see a Boyd’s Bear added to the family. During this time, my wife continued to be smoke-free. Summer arrived and a family vacation to Cape Cod, Massachusetts was in the plan.  There she found a small store, in Provincetown, that was closing, selling out their stock of Boyd’s Bears at a very reduced price. Twenty of them found a new home in our van.

Five years later, Maggie is still smoke-free and our collection of Boyd’s Bears has crossed the six hundred mark. We have taken two trips to Gettysburg, the home of Boyd’s Bears and have also visited Pigeon Forge in Tennessee in search of finding elusive bears. Every trip we take has become a new adventure where we hope to find a new site that offers hard to find bears. We cruise eBay and have made friends all over North America. Each bear that comes to our home gets its picture taken and is recorded.

In checking the financial aspect of these purchases, we have discovered that the bears have not cost as much as the cigarettes she would have bought during this time and the bears continue to increase in value. 
I believe Maggie’s success in quitting “cold Turkey” was successful because each month the money that would have been spent on cigarettes was spent on a bear. At the end of each month, she could see the benefits of not smoking. She had something she could hold, hug, and talk about. She got involved in the adventure of what else was there in bear country.  This was concrete and allowed her to replace a destructive habit with a positive hobby.

This hobby allows us to share life’s little adventures. Every new town we come across we look for a store that might sell bears. Every aisle of a store might hold a bear that we can add to the collection. Together we have discovered new things about Boyd’s Bears and ourselves. The last five years have been an incredible journey. A journey of self-discovery and one in which I hope not to hear my wife say, “That’s the last one!” when referring to Boyd’s Bears!