I got the idea for for one more day after talking to people who read my previous book, the five people you meet in heaven. Many of them said the book made them think about people they lost and then they said, "oh, if I only had another day with..." Most often, they were speaking about a parent. It seems that we leave many things unsaid with our mothers and fathers. Or maybe we just think that they're never going to die. And then they do - and it's too late.
So I followed the idea of having one more day with a lost loved one - in the story in my book, it is a son getting a second chance with his departed mother - and I asked myself as a writer: How would this day go? Would it be abnormal? Or would it be like all the other days the child had spent with the parent, some talk, some meals, even some argument?
The character in my book has reached a low point in his life. He sees no point in living anymore. He goes to his old hometown with plans to take his own life, but instead stumbles into his former house and discovers his mother, who died ten years earlier, still living there as if nothing ever happened.
What follows is that one magical last day, in which he gets to have many of his questions answered by his mother's visit. He comes to understand how his own life went astray. And he finally comes to recognize all the things she quietly did for him while he was growing up, the sacrifices she made that he never knew about.
for one more day is not a book about death, but about life, and saying the things we should be saying all the others days of our lives. It's a book about family, a book about the unique relationship between mothers and sons, and a book about the things children yearn for from those who raise them. It's my hope that those who read it will finish the last page and perhaps pick up the phone and call that person they might have otherwise waited for another day, a day that never comes.
I look forward to hearing from you while I'm on tour for my new book, for one more day, and to hopefully meeting some of you in person.
Join other book lovers and follow my book tour in the Starbucks Book Break group on Gather!
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Comments: 48
I have so often dreamed of being with my loved ones that have passed, For One More Day.
It really got me to think about a close friend I lost 10 years ago...what would one more day with him be like and would I want to know that it was only for one more day?
He was an colorful, incredible individual that, had you cared to name any person of fame/infamy from about 1955 to around 1970 he had met or known them at some personal level. There's photographic proof to this.
The pastel of people he'd met and learned something about was staggering and I wasted no time at drinking in his every word from my first meeting with him some 20+ years ago.
He was no angel- having taught me how to "drink like a proper gentleman" when I was barely older than the legal driving age- but he also had taught me the responsibility that went with that "manly past-time".
He was the first "adult" friend I'd had who talked TO me- and not the paternal generalized banter of a 'father figure'.
One More Day- indeed.
Feel free to look me up for the whole story. I'm certain it won't disappoint.
"(after April 15, 1919) TO SCOTT Montgomery, AL
......Why should graves make people feel in vain? I've heard that so much, and Grey is so convincing, but somehow I can't find anything hpoeless in having lived ......" (Source: Dear Scott, Dearsest Zelda, Ed. by Jackson Bryer & Cathy Barks, St. Martin's Press, New York City, NY, 2002).
Thank you Mitch.
P.S. I too would like to hear about your writing habits.
I have been travelling around the country with "for one more day", vsiting readers in bookstores, churches, halls, universities - and the response has been overwhelming.
It's also so fascinating to see how many people wish they, too, could have one more day with a mother or father. Why is it that we leave so many things unsaid or unfinished with our parents? Maybe it's because we can't really imagine them gone, since they have been here since we came into the world. But, boy, do people yearn and hunger for another meal, another walk, another visit.
There's a line in the book that people have been quoting back to me. It comes when Charley sees his mother again for the first time. He whispers the word "Mom." Then he realizes how strange it sounds, because "when death takes your mother, it steals that word forever."
So many people have commented on that line, how they have not used the word "mom' or "dad" since they lost that loved one and how that sentence made them stop and catch their breath or even cry a little. When I wrote it, I knew that it would ring true, but I never thought it would have the impact that is has. It is one of the joys of writing to hear from your readers about words you put together that become more than a sentence but something real and moving and even true.
I will share more thoughts here on this site as we go along and welcome your comments or questions. Thanks for believing in me and my work.
Mitch Albom
There is another element that I am finding people talking about as I travel across the country with "for one more day." It is the loneliness and hunger of children from broken homes. In the book, Charley's father disapears when he is 11. As a self-proclaimed "daddy's boy", Charley doesn't know how to let go. He pines for his father and, subliminally, blames his mother for the man's absence. AS a result he can never really appreciate all she has done for him - at least not until he gets his one more day many years later.
I wonder how many of you this theme resonates with as you read the book. I had no idea, until I began this tour, how many of us are children of broken homes and broken hearts, yearning for a mother and father together.
I welcome your thoughts on that element of the book.
Thank you for your support of my work.
mitch
I am very glad to know that you are here at gather.
I digress, but the reason is to illustrate that each of your books resonate deeply with me. The vivid relationships painted in "Five People" or the profound life lessons taught it "Tuesdays." And last night, as I slipped your audiobook into my CD player, I was again immediately moved and connected with. I lost my mother nine years ago, and would give anything for that one more day. For me, it would be for the sole purpose to know that I have carried on her legacy in the way she would have were she here still.
You've written something incredibly profound once again, and all I can do is thank you that your gift has been shared with so many people over and over again.
For the person who wondered why "death" is a central theme of my work, I always laugh when I hear that question, because to me, people who write about death are the people who write murder stories, books about serial killers, science fiction books where hundreds of beings are murdered, that kind fo thing. My books usually have one death in them, but only as a bouncing board to examine life. I think our motality is the greatest teacher we have in putting out lives in perspective: I am fascinated by how to enrich life, love, family and our time on earth. I am not actually fascinated by death, but I know it is the most powerful instrument to get us to think about why we are here. So to me, my books are not about death, they are about life.
My writing habits? Someone asked about those. Well, I am pretty steady in that area. I try to write every morning, from around 6:30 a.m. to about 9:30 a.m. Never any longer. I find that three hours is the maximum time i have, its like the size of my gas tank. and any more and I am running on fumes. It wouldn't matter if I sat there for six more hours, nothing productive would come.
On the other hand, I try to write every day, weekends as well. I find if you treat it like a job, like a habit, like brushing your teeth or working out a muscle, you are more facile with it. The idea of waiting for divine inspiration - a lightning bolt that awakens you from sleep and makes you write feverishly for 30 straight hours - well, so far I've never had that blessed experience. My books are slow, steady work that I read over and over again until I feel something moving in them, because if I don't, no one else will.
I want to thank the many of you who have shared such personal stories with me here, and for all of you who have lost people recently, my prayers are with you. Thank you for being part of this on-line "dinner table."
talk more soon
mitch albom
mitch
This story has trurly inspired me in many ways even inspiring, a web site in which I want to share with each of you, www.cardsfrommom.com
I met you at a book signing in the Boston-area back in '03 during your book tour for The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I look forward to reading this new one as well!
"for one more day" is a lovingly crafted, beautiful story--thank you, Mitch, for writing it.
On a side note, Tuedays with Morrie is still one of my very favorite books and I recommend it all of the time.