I am very sorry for the loss of your good friend WW. My sincere condolences.
I smoke. Have for 40 years. The cigs will likely kill me. Have quit numerous times only to start again. It's a dirty, nasty, foul smelling, expensive, and hazardous habit that some people cannot break. The only way I could quit permanently is if the things were made totally unavailable. That won't happen.
Life is full of trade-offs and compromises whereby we all get to the same ending. Living in the modern world, eating the modern diet, breathing the modern air, drinking the modern water, travelling the modern highway, taking the modern drugs and medicines - all things that will either speed or slow us along in our journey. Who knows which will push them to their ending?
Smoking is now regarded generally with less respect than heroine addiction but there was a time when all the social influences pointed toward smoking as the "in" thing to do. Many of us somewhat older folks became addicted during that era. And many of us have not found the way to quit. Even after near-death from cancer, when I was sure I would never smoke again, the trade-off became to smoke or suffer through endless panic attacks. I smoked.
One thing I'm sure of is that we can take some comfort in knowing that the insensitive, witless, bungholes of this world will also reach the end of their travels, the pity being they couldn't fill in for some of the good ones we lose along the way.