karma

I've been friends with April since middle school. She was my first real friend.
Sometimes we talk often, sometimes not for a month or two. But I've always considered her family.

A few years ago she developed Lymphoma, a cancer that went throughout her whole body.

Although I live an hour away, I visited her in the hospital every 3 days, even taking off work.
I was so worried for her, her father had died of lung cancer only a few years earlier.

She survived the cancer because of her strong will and I was never so impressed with her.

This week she mentioned that she started smoking cigarettes.

"are you retarded?" I asked, "didnt your father die of lung cancer?"

She said "yeah, well I'm gonna get cancer again anyway so what difference does it make"

April has 2 young boys, one in in Pre-K and one in elementary school.

She had to watch her father suffer and die from lung cancer, why would she do that to her kids?

I'm at a loss for words, I truly dont know if I can watch her do this to herself, it makes me so upset.

What do I do? What do I say? "If you get lung cancer, I'm not coming to visit you in the hospital."