Honoring my father in law

  My father in law passed away two weeks ago. His body battled to live despite his repeated abuse and neglect of the vessel he dwelled in.
 He was the most kindest man you could ever meet in this lifetime, never had a bad word to say about anyone despite being surrounded by a wife and step children that had plenty to say about him. He had learned to deal with this with alcohol so between that and his chain smoking, along with his horrible diet and zero exercise once he retired from the Air Force, his body had a lot of things to fight against and no ammunition to fight it. We often said had he taken care of himself he would be outliving us all.
His battle started 16 years ago when he had a heart attack and requires a trip led by pass. He was warned by his doctor then that he needed to stop smoking and exercise but like the majority of heart attach survivors I would imagine, he quickly fell back to his old ways and without a wife supporting him in a lifestyle change for she was a heavy smoker, loathes any form of physical exertion and lives off of Diet Coke, the odds were really stacked against him.
 His final days were tragic, so much fluid in his lungs that he only had 10% function in his lungs and when they tried a procedure to remove the fluid, doctors had to perform cpr four times to bring him back but sadly, tests revealed no brain function so he had passed away with only machines keeping his broken body going.
 I am struggling with what to say to others about his passing. I think when people are killed after being flung from cars because they didn’t put their seat belt on, or they fell from their bike without a helmet on, that people are quick to say, “this is why you wear a seat belt, a helmet, treat all guns as loaded,” etc but with people that died from decades long of ill health that didn’t have to be, we just sort of shrug and move on with the status quo.
 My family is very long lived, into their 90’s and 100’s so as I approach 40 in the next few years I don’t consider myself middle aged yet, I am saving that for 50! While I have never smoked, I don’t drink beyond a couple frou frou drinks a year, and I exercise pretty regularly, I feel like my diet needs a good overhaul.
 I have tried the grass fed, organic route for quite a few years but honestly I am not convinced that this is much healthier. I am surrounded by people that hunt and eat only meat that they have killed themselves and I see no health benefits. Granted often these people aren’t eating wild for their health and typically drink and or smoke and eat processed foods so my anecdotal cases are truly without scientific basis! I just don’t see the health benefits of free range meat.
 What I do see that inspires me towards a more healthy way of eating is whole food plant based way of eating. Not simply vegan or vegetarian since one can live off of Oreos and Mountain Dew and still live a vegan lifestyle, but eating for actual health and not for cruelty free reasons. I hear from too many people that point to someone they know that was a vegetarian and suffered from a heart atta k or cancer. One must know how they actually ate before they throw the whole idea out the window and dig into a cheeseburger.
 So in honor of my father in law’s memory, I am going to try to do better, for myself and my kids, because I don’t want them to suffer through the same heart break, either in watching me as my body gives out, or with their own health.