/ 18 April 2007

Smoking saves woman’s life

Smoking just might have saved the life of a South Carolina woman.

Brenda Comer said she had just finished washing dishes on Monday morning and stepped outside to smoke a cigarette when a 24m oak tree crashed through her roof, the Herald reported in its Wednesday editions.

The tree landed across the sink where she had been standing just seconds before, Comer said.

”Honey, I know you fuss at me for smoking,” Comer said she told her husband. ”But today it saved my life.”

The tree, felled by high winds, also missed the couple’s adult daughter, who was at the other end of the house.

The family’s insurance agent said they could not live there after the tree cut the kitchen and living room in half, scattering the contents of the kitchen cabinets.

”I looked down and saw a bottle with two pills,” Comer said. ”I thought, ‘Well, I have a headache, and there’s two Excedrin.” — Sapa-AP