SPRINGFIELD — Eldon Miller was in pain.

Recovering from a hip replacement, Miller, 67, has options of either sitting in one of his two chairs, lying on the couch or going to bed.

One day, after watching his wife mow the lawn because he was physically unable to do it, Miller broke.

His daughter had left a pack of cigarettes on the counter.

Miller was nearly four months of being smoke-free. He had successfully completed a six-week smoking cessation program sponsored by Community Mercy Health Partners and partially funded by the Ohio Department of Health, Office of Healthy Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation.

He’s started smoking again.

“I can’t help around the house, can’t help my wife,” Miller said. “I just got totally disgusted with myself and said if I’m gonna feel this damn bad, I might well as smoke, too, so I did.”

Miller is back to smoking a few cigarettes a day and he’s back on the nicotine patch.

Now, nearly five months after his Nov. 30 quit date, Miller is starting from scratch.

He even “broke down and bought some (cigarettes) the other day.”

Miller said he’s disappointed in himself and ashamed that he’s picked the habit back up.

But he recognizes that it’s been one struggle after another.

“I didn’t think I’d be that bad after going this far,” he said.

Now he knows better.

“You think you’re over the hill, but no, you never really get over the hill,” Miller said. “There’s always something that just snaps. I don’t care if you’re a non-smoker for 10 years.”

A father, grandfather and husband who wants to be around for his family, Miller knows the cigarettes have to go and stay gone.

“I’ve got to try again.”

Three other Clark County residents quit with him on Nov. 30 after taking the smoking cessation class.

Here’s how they’ve been doing.

Denise Harris: Keeping busy

She hasn’t cheated since that one time in December, so Denise Harris is still a nonsmoker.

Now she has to deal with some of the side effects of gaining weight.

“Yeah, 18 pounds,” said Harris, 51. “So I was like, OK, enough of that.”

She’s incorporated walking with a friend in her regular exercise routine.

Harris has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and her doctor has been happy with her decision to stop smoking.

“I’m not really having too hard a time,” Harris said. “I just have to keep busy.”

To help combat the smoking, she established some activities as absolutely smoke-free, including crocheting.

She’s looking ahead to her five-month anniversary of her quit date.

“It just takes determination,” Harris said. “You have to remember you’re doing it for yourself.”

Dawn Cromlish: ‘Where’s our five minutes?’

Now that 43-year-old Dawn Cromlish is a nonsmoker, she jokes with the folks who smoke at her job.

They take their cigarette breaks.

“I’ll be like, ‘Hey, wait a minute,” Cromlish said, laughing. “Where’s our five minutes? Don’t we get to do something and come back in?’”

Before Nov. 30, Cromlish was among those who took a cigarette break, but now she is still doing well after quitting.

She was really excited about a weight gain, but that has slowed down.

Cromlish reported “no struggles, no temptations,” she said. “It’s weird, but I haven’t had any.”

She is still marveling over how much better things taste and has a new appreciation for coffee.

Even though Cromlish still deals with her share of stress, she said she won’t start back up.

“There are some things that would make me say, ‘Oh my nerves are so bad,’” she said. “But I just work through it.”

Cromlish jokingly shared that she’s easier to be around now:

“My sister says I don’t stink anymore.”

David Daniels: ‘No super pill’

When David Daniels moves forward, there’s visible progress.

He had quit smoking for almost two days.

But his setbacks also take him pretty far back.

When receiving news about the death of a friend, Daniels, 43, smoked two packs of cigarettes in one day.

Daniels didn’t quit completely during his participation in the smoking cessation class.

But on Nov. 30, he resolved to cut back from his nearly three-pack-a-day habit. He’s down to about a pack a day these days.

Slowly but surely, he’s letting it go.

“There’s no super pill or anything like that to make you quit,” Daniels said. “It has to come from the person.”

No one is more aware than Daniels of the ill effects of smoking.

His physician has told him he needs to quit.

All there is to do now is find the strength to do it.

“It’s willpower or nothing at all,” Daniels said. “The will to put it down or the will to pick it up. There’s no other way.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.