DALLAS (ABP) — Divorce is insidious, but time with loved ones is precious, author Mitch Albom told an audience as part of a Dallas church's lecture series Nov. 1.
Divorce does terrible things to kids, he says, even when they think it doesn't affect them. That's one of the themes of Albom's new novel, For One More Day.
“I'm not here to lecture on divorce,” he said, adding that most of his 17 nieces and nephews have divorced parents. The nieces and nephews “are always at our house because there are two people there — and they're not fighting. The kids just can't believe it.”
Albom, a sports writer who broke onto the book scene with his acclaimed memoir Tuesdays With Morrie, spoke as part of a lecture series at Highland Park United Methodist Church.
He said he set For One More Day in the 1950s and 1960s because divorce was unusual back then. During Albom's childhood, he said, there was one divorced person in his entire neighborhood, and everyone knew exactly where she lived. And no matter which decade they live in, children feel like they're the odd one out if their parents are divorced, he added.
“Every kid lives in the '50s and '60s when it comes to that,” Albom said. “To them, they only know their own household. They only know who's in it or who isn't. They're all in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
Albom's newest protagonist, Charles “Chick” Benetto, has that feeling. In the story, he idolizes his father, who deserts the family when Chick is a young boy. In the years following, Chick is nurtured by his mother but longs for his absent father.
After Chick's mother dies, his life unravels into depression and drunkenness, which alienates his family and friends. The night Chick botches a suicide attempt, he happens upon his mother, in his hometown, and magically gets to spend one more day with her.
The day provides the opportunity for Chick to ask the woman questions he had always wanted to ask and to express the feelings that, left unspoken, had festered into resentment and selfishness in the years since his father left.
The premise is one Albom thinks vitally important to developing as a person — and one fans often express to him: “I wish I had one more day with my loved one to tell them how much I really loved and cared for them.”
Albom said he had a “Type-AAAAA” personality before he wrote Tuesdays with Morrie. “I thought if you worked below 90 hours a week you didn't get health insurance or something,” he quipped.
After a long series of weekly visits with his old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease, his perspective changed. Albom was 37 years old at the time, and Schwartz was in his 70s and dying. But the older man was obviously the happier one, Albom said.
Schwartz taught him patience and to live each moment to the fullest. Like the famous John Lennon quote, Albom said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
“I am not preaching at you,” Albom told the audience. “I am speaking to you as someone who went through this myself. [Chick] got to say all the thing things you should to your loved ones. Many people have said to me, 'What I wouldn't give for one more day …' but they do have one more day.”
Most importantly, Albom stressed, don't let opportunity to express love or appreciation go untapped. It's simple to pick up the phone and call loved ones, he said.
“We need to make these days happen now in our own real life,” he said.
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