Mitch Albom’s new book, For One More Day, is a celebration of a mother’s love. As with his previous book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, I read much of this book through eyes clouded with tears.

In the opening pages, an unidentified person asks us to consider the question: “Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever?... What if you got it back?”

At the lowest point in his life, Charley Benetto receives this gift.

Years after her death, Charley is given the opportunity to spend one more day with his mother. But the circumstances that lead to this epiphany are hardly favorable. Charley is a middle-aged salesman who experienced six weeks in the major leagues and played in the World Series. Though he thought this would bring him happiness, he finds himself – after the promise is long past – reflecting on his own emptiness: “All that happened when you dream comes true is a slow, melting realization that it wasn’t what you thought. And it won’t save you” (6).

Now dealing with the loss of his marriage, alienation from his daughter, and the loss of his mother, he decides to commit suicide. It is this decision that “magically” brings his mother back into his life. The book then alternates between Charley’s life-story and his unusual day with his mother.

Having been abandoned by his father early in his life, Charley was raised primarily by his mother. Without her presence in his adult life, he feels desperately alone: “But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going into every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone” (5).

When she reappears after his suicide attempt, she tends to his cuts and bruises: “But when she sat down across from me and dabbed the washcloth on my face and arms, and she grimaced at the cuts and mumbled, ‘Look at you’ – I don’t know how to say it. It burst through my defenses. It had been a long time since anyone wanted to be that close to me, to show the tenderness it took to roll up a shirtsleeve. She cared. She gave a crap. When I lacked even the self-respect to keep myself alive, she dabbed my cuts and I fell back into being a son; I fell as easily as you fall into your pillow at night. And I didn’t want it to end” (49). As only a mother can do, she sighs, “Charley. The trouble you get into” (50).

During his visit, she tells him that she had trouble with getting pregnant, and after a long struggle, Charley was an answer to her prayers. Charley thinks to himself: “I wanted to cry. A wish granted? How long had it been since anyone referred to me as anything close to that?” (73)

Charley also discovers the depth of his mother’s devotion. She lost her job as a nurse when her husband left, because her newfound status as an attractive single women was a threat to others. (And there is a hint that she rejected the sexual advances of a doctor.) She then worked as a beautician, and then as a cleaning lady in order to put Charley through college. This revelation of her sacrifice is new to Charley: “‘But…’ I stumbled for words. ‘You couldn’t do the work that mattered to you.’ My mother looked at me with a glint of defiance. ‘I did what mattered to me,’ she said. ‘I was a mother’” (135).

During his college years, Charley’s father reappears, but only because of Charley’s success in baseball. His mother, on the other hand, is there for him at all times. This reminds Charley of words his father told him when he was young: “You can be a mama’s boy or you can be a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both.” For much of Charley’s adult life, he sought to win his father’s affection and consequently ignored his mother’s love. Near the end of the book, Charley’s mother complains that it is tragic that he was forced to choose between the two. In the end he apologizes to her: “‘I made the wrong choice,’ I whispered. My mother shook her head. ‘A child should never have to choose’” (188).

As Charley’s visit draws to a close, his mother tells him, “You have to take care of yourself, Charley.” Charley thinks to himself, “I saw in her expression that old, unshakable mountain of concern. And I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know” (174).

There is much more to this wonderful story and I encourage you to read this book. It touched me deeply, and made me appreciate my mother more. It also inspired me to be a better father. It’s hard to ask for much more from a work of fiction!

For One More Day reminds us of the purity, passion, sacrifice, and devotion of a mother’s love. Every card she wrote for Charley (and she wrote many) ends with the phrase, “I love you every day.”

In his previous book, Albom reminded us that our stories are all connected, and that they are ultimately, all one. In this book, Albom tenderly urges us to see that our own individual stories would be empty – indeed, non-existent – if not for our mother’s story. A story that is usually one of deep, abiding, joyful love. “But there’s a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begins” (194).

Quotes excerpted from For One More Day by Mitch Albom
© Richard J. Vincent, 2006