I was calling a program participant for one of her regularly scheduled, follow-up support calls. Like usual, I introduced myself & where I was calling from. I asked how the participant was doing & she replied with something like, “Well, I’m sorry if I don’t seem totally ‘here.’ We just buried my father today.”

I expressed my empathy and understanding that this may not be the best time to talk about her quitting smoking, but much to my surprise, she was more than willing to continue with the call. Let me just say, I kind of felt like a deer in headlights for a moment.

Eyes widened, mouth dropped open.

Now, I know it’s not fair to assume things. But in my experience, participants don’t want to talk about quitting smoking when a stressful situation like this has just happened. So you can probably see why this caught me off guard. I even think she apologized for not calling us back (we had tried to reach her a few times before) since she had been bedside with her father in the hospital.

We continued with her support call and for much of the conversation, it was the participant reminding me how important her quit is, that she’s got this far and is determined to stay on track, and that she’s learned from past quit attempts and was not going to let this stressful situation bring her back to smoking, which in most cases, having a loved one pass away (especially a parent), is normally something that triggers people to relapse.

This was definitely a learning experience for me or one of those “Aaah ha!” moments. Why? Because:

It reminded me that just because stress or crisis is something that normally brings people back to smoking, it doesn’t mean it will every time.

Our program participants can open our minds to things we have never pondered before, or even to things we have known about, but have forgotten.

Don’t assume things. There are surprises around every corner. Sometimes we may even surprise ourselves.

It’s moments like these that truly remind me how much I love doing what I do.