(CNN) -- For one, it was a health scare. For another, the words of a friend hit him in an instant. And for another, it was the loss of a dear relative.
Many ex-smokers can remember their last cigarette, and the moment when they decided to quit the habit for good.
On the occasion of Thursday's Great American Smokeout, an annual event sponsored by the American Cancer Society, here's a look at nine former smokers and the moment they decided it was time to say goodbye.
'Smoked out of good health'
Kara Wethington's 66-year-old grandmother had just died. Wethington took one final drag on a cigarette.It was 2000, and she decided this would be her last smoke.
"I was shocked because this woman was an ox who smoked four packs of Pall Mall cigarettes a day and worked full time as a nurse," said the Los Angeles resident, who was 23 at the time.
"I always felt safe that this blood line relative could smoke like a chimney and still be OK all these years later. She looked 100 but acted 60."But, "the reality of it is that she fell ill with pneumonia and her lungs couldn't support her any longer."
As she finished her last cigarette, Wethington reflected on how she got there.
"I loved smoking. The social aspect of it, the taste of it, the way it made me feel -- everything about it was romantic to me."But the death of her grandmother was the "straw that broke the camel's back" soon after Wethington herself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of strep throat, and she hasn't looked back for 13 years.
"I've had smoking dreams that felt so intimately real that the line of reality and fantasy blurred out my memory. I know I didn't smoke but sometimes those dreams feel really good and sometimes with real regret."
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