Tuesdays With Morrie is about Morrie Schwartz, a professor at Brandeis University, who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. He received his death sentence in 1994. Knowing that he is going to die he made his death a final project. He would narrate his trip as he walked the bridge between life and death.
He refused to be depressed. Instead he had a lot of ideas and wrote them down. He made many aphorisms and shared it with his friends. One of his friends who was so taken sent it to a Boston Globe reporter, who made a feature story on Morrie.
The article caught the eye of a producer of a TV show who sent Ted Koppel to make an interview with Morrie.
A thousand miles away, Mitch Albom was casually flipping channels one late night. When he heard his old professor’s name he went numb.
Mitch visited Morrie. They decided to do one last thesis together. They met on Tuesdays, like when they were in college. In this last class of his old professor, the lessons were about how to live. Mitch have different ideas about life and Morrie tried to put in the right way. As they met, Morrie’s time runs out. His disease slowly ate him. Morrie tried to teach Mitch and tell the world his message through his interviews with Koppel, as best as he could before he pass away.
The weeks passed, Morrie grew weaker, and his life is now coming to a conclusion. Mitch was there for his last visit. It was the fourteenth Tuesday of their class and it was time to say good bye. Morrie was very weak at this point. He spoke in short bursts, his voice is raspy and he could barely move. As they spoke, they exchanged their feelings for each other, since they have become close in college. They were filled with emotion as they shared their feelings and as they cherish their last moments together. On a Saturday morning, Morrie died, his loved ones were with him in the house. On the fourth of November, when those he loved was not in the room for just a moment to get some coffee in the kitchen, the first time none of them was with him since the coma began, Morrie stopped breathing. And his life ceased.
Morrie always wanted to die peacefully, and that is how he did.
On a humid breezy morning, the interment was held. It was a small gathering with some close friends and relatives. Morrie was buried in an exquisite spot in a cemetery, where there were trees, grass and a sloping hill, just like what he told Mitch.
Sometimes Mitch looks back at the person he was before he found again his old professor. Mostly he wanted to change the past. But he knows he can’t do this, because no one can. Not long after Morrie’s death, Mitch tried to get to his brother in Spain. He told him how much he means to him and how he loves him. A few days later he received a message from his brother. He finally wanted to talk to Mitch after the years he refused to communicate.
Tuesdays With Morrie is a very dramatic book with a sad yet blissful story. It tells us how to value our life and our loved ones around us. We should learn from what was taught here and apply it ourselves. This is one of the books that are worth reading.
