What a chemistry professor’s stinky plant taught me about COPD

Some teachers leave you with formulas and lab reports. Others leave you with something that follows you into the harder seasons of life, long after you’ve forgotten the periodic table.

When I was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), I found myself reaching back to lessons I didn’t even know I’d stored in my memory. These were lessons about patience, humor, and the strange ways we learn to live with what we didn’t choose. One of the teachers who shaped that inner toolkit was Byron Turner, my chemistry professor at West Virginia’s Glenville State University.

Turner taught chemistry, but he also taught curiosity and a kind of quiet mischief that made learning feel alive. He had a wry sense of humor that never announced itself — it simply drifted into the room and settled there until you realized he’d been teaching you something without ever raising his voice.

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One spring, he went up to the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area and came back with a start of skunk cabbage, or Turner’s stink plant, as we called it. Most people would’ve left it where it grew. Not Turner. He planted it, tended it, and then used it as the centerpiece of a prank he enjoyed far more than he ever admitted.

Whenever he was entertaining what he called “high mucky mucks,” he placed that skunk cabbage right beside the dining room table. He never told us who the guests were, but he always came to class the next day with a quiet twinkle in his eye, describing how the plant had performed its aromatic duties.

He didn’t like people who thought they were superior. He did this to see them squirm a little, and because he understood that life is easier to bear when you can laugh at the unexpected, even when the unexpected smells like a swamp.

Now, while living with COPD, I understand that lesson differently. COPD asks you to live with limits you didn’t choose. It asks you to breathe through discomfort, adapt, pace yourself, and find steadiness in the unpredictable. It asks you to make room for the days when your lungs feel like they’ve played a joke you didn’t sign up for. And sometimes, it asks you to laugh — not because anything is funny, but because humor makes the hard parts bearable.

Turner’s skunk cabbage reminds me that not everything unpleasant is a failure. Sometimes it’s just part of the landscape. Sometimes it’s a story you’ll tell later. And sometimes it’s a reminder that you can still find delight, even when the air around you is less than ideal.

COPD has its own version of “stink plants” — the breathless mornings, the stubborn lungs, the days when your body feels unfamiliar. But the lesson is the same: Acknowledge the discomfort, work around it, and keep your curiosity alive.

Living with COPD means waking up each day and meeting your body exactly where it is — not where you wish it was or where it used to be. Some days the air feels generous, and other days it feels like that skunk cabbage sitting too close to the table, reminding you that discomfort is part of the landscape. But you are still here, still learning, still adapting.

If Turner taught me anything, it’s that we can face the hard moments with curiosity instead of fear, and with a little humor when we can manage it. COPD may change the way we move through the world, but it doesn’t take away our ability to notice beauty, find meaning, or keep going. And on the days when breathing feels like work, I hope you’ll remember that you’re not facing this alone. There is still room for grace in every breath you take.

Note: COPD News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of COPD News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.