A participant asked me recently how long it takes being quit before there are no more cravings for nicotine, at all, ever. "It's different for everyone," I said. "Some people never miss it; for some people it takes years; and for some those cravings never go away, but just become manageable." I'd learned it in Free & Clear University, while training to be a Quit Coach. I'd heard it from participants on the phone. I know that it's a true answer, intellectually, and I can say it with confidence, but I don't know from personal experience. I've never smoked.

And I've beat some pretty long odds to be able to say that. Children of smokers are twice as likely to smoke as the children of nonsmokers, and both of my parents smoked--from long before I was born to years after I'd left them with an empty nest--no matter how often I flushed their cigarettes down the toilet.

My parents both quit seven years ago, in the face of serious medical issues: kidney failure, dialysis, diabetes, transplants and immune suppression. The fact that they ever smoked at all has faded into the background of those much more immediate concerns. But the more time I spend as a Quit Coach the more I think about a childhood spent in a second-hand cloud, and the more I use that experience to connect with the people I talk to. So, as a sort of thank you, I checked in on my parents last week, and asked if they ever get cravings any more.

My dad spent a few minutes talking generally about willpower and a positive attitude. He never directly answered my question about cravings, but I guess you don't need to have willpower or a positive attitude if you never get the urge to smoke. Either way, he insisted he'll never smoke again; "I know I can't," he said.

My mom was a little more candid. She told me about her triggers, and which of them still affected her, and when. I felt, for a while, like I was on the phones at work. But as she went on, my mom said something that really took me by surprise: "I'd start again."

All I could get out in response was, "What?"

My mom clarified. "When I'm dying, maybe. If my kidneys give out again, and we know it's only a matter of time. I'd start smoking again, then." The memory of smoking is still there, and cigarettes are something she might pick up again on her way to her grave.

But in the meantime? "I don't have cravings very often at all, and they're really brief when I do - just a passing thought. As long as I'm alive, I'm a non-smoker."

How long until the cravings go away altogether? For some people, they never do. But even then, I'm glad my parents feel that it's entirely possible to be Quit For Life.