Late last year, Geoffrey Turner was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Though he passed away on February 13 knowing it was his smoking that robbed him of a longer life, Geoffrey’s obituary carries on a different legacy that will stick family, friends, and strangers alike.
“I was an idiot who made the same stupid decision, day after day, multiple times a day. I was a smoker and even though I knew it may eventually kill me, I chose to deny the truth to myself,” he said as he opened the obituary. Lighting up came at a cost to him and his loved ones, and his obituary acted as a warning to anyone reading not to start smoking. Turner goes on to say “The pain and suffering I caused my family was not worth the perceived ‘satisfaction’ that really did nothing more than waste money, separate me from my family, and eventually destroyed my body.”
Turner left behind a wife of 41 years, five children, and four grandchildren. This writing hit Turner’s family rather hard. Knowing their father, this isn’t something that family expected from him. Turner’s daughter, Sarah Huiest, is amazed at the letters response after the obituary was published in the Times Union Newspaper. “Many people, friends, and strangers have reached out to us regarding his words,” Huiest said in an interview with TODAY. “For some, it is the words they wish they had heard from loved ones passed- family members that could never admit their smoking led to their illness. I heard from someone who said that they may be one of those reached before it’s too late. And I have seen hundreds of times that it has been shared in the hopes of compelling someone to quit.”
According to Huiest, family stories had it that her father picked up his first cigarette at age 2, one of his mothers, and his earliest memory of smoking was at age 4. He briefly stopped after marrying, but picked up the habit again in the 90’s. Turner often discouraged anyone else from taking up the habit, knowing the effect it had. His daughter said that he was very vocal with his family to never start smoking. He never smoked in the house, for he knew how much they did not like his habit. Though her father knew the dangers of his habit, he never made an attempt to quit. “He discussed trying to quit last summer with my mom (before his diagnosis), but didn’t put forth much effort.” Huiest said. “She tried to get him to stop smoking often, but he was very headstrong and there was very little discussion in the matter.”
“I did many good things, helped lots of people, and even made a decent living,” Turner writes further in his obituary, “At 66 years old, I lived a decent life, but there are so many events and milestones I will not be able to share with my loved ones. The moral of this story- don’t bean idiot. If you’re a smoker- quit- now- your life depends on it and those you love depend on your life. Remember life is good- don’t let it go up in smoke.”
Through all of this, Huiest believes that what her father wrote is an incredible gift that outshines anything else that he has accomplished in his life. “My father prided himself on his many entrepreneurial ventures, various business successes, and world travels. Those are the things I expected to read in his obituary. I never expected it to be what it was and it is this single act from his life that I am most proud of. Someone told me he was changing his legacy with this obituary, and I couldn’t agree more.”
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