| Dear Prudence Dying Light Lung cancer is killing my father, but I'll never forgive him for smoking. By Emily Yoffe
Posted Thursday, Aug 22, 2013, at 10:15 AM ET  Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.) Got a burning question for Prudie? She'll be back to chat at Washingtonpost.com after the Labor Day holiday on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at noon. See Emily live! She will be talking to Slate editor David Plotz and taking questions at Sixth and I in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11. For tickets and more information, click here. Dear Prudence,
My father is 77 years old. After over 50 years of enthusiastic smoking, he has finally been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. I'm 37 years old and since I can remember I have worried that this day would come. He loves to talk about himself, so he calls me and goes on and on with the latest updates, and how he is sure the next round of treatments will cure him. (The five-year survival rate for people with his diagnosis is 1 percent.) Beginning when I was a small child, I tried to get him to quit by using persuasion, anger, heartfelt letters, throwing out his cigarettes, even family therapy a few years ago, all to no avail. He would often get angry and defensive and even called me "selfish" for describing how his smoking affected me. I'm fed up and having a hard time mustering sympathy for his self-inflicted disease. And he is still smoking! Part of ... To continue reading, click here.
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