It will be 28 years this year since I quit. My husband quit almost 10 years ago. I smoked 2 1/2 packs a day, he was a chain smoker. That 18 year gap was very hard for me with him smoking around me all of the time. He tried to quit a few times, but just couldn't. I hated the smell of it, and it got so that the clicking sound of his Zippo lighter would cause a nerve tremor and facial tic in me. I nagged at him constantly about it - it wasn't pleasant.
One day, my mother (God bless her) said, "let's just start praying every day for him to quit".
We set a certain time that every day we would both stop what we were doing and say a prayer for him to quit smoking. We did this faithfully for over a year.
One day he came home and said, "I've quit smoking." -He still had an open pack left and packs left in the carton! He never smoked another cigarette.
He knows if he smokes one, he would start again. Me, I still bum a menthol off a friend of mine about once a month (not around my husband though).