Summary Of... To Live Another Day by Mitch Albom

I'm glad that the previous post, 'Love Your Parents' got few good comments and I'm sorry that I forgot to post the summary for this book at the first place. And, my posts are not copy paste materials =_=. Of course, the books are not written by me, but i took hours and days to read them in order to summarise and select extractions from these brilliant books. Anyway, here it is, the summary of:

This is the story of a person’s life, about a boy and a man, known as Chick Benetto.

The boy has a little sister in his family of four. His parents divorced when he was still young and his mother, Posey had to raise him and her sister all by herself:
Pg22…
‘I’d take you,’ she whispered. ‘Whenever it is.’
‘Why can’t Daddy take me? I asked.
‘Daddy’s not here.’
‘Where is he?’
She didn’t answer.
When’s he coming back?’
She squeezed the corn puff and they crumbled into floury dust.
I was a mama’s boy from that day on.


It was hard being a single mother who is still very much attractive as jealous wives were afraid she would be too ‘charming’ for their husbands. The occasional pokers and teatime with friends and neighbors before the divorce were all over:
Pg74…
She made it seem like her choice. Just the three of us. For a long time, I believed New Year’s Eve was a family event, meant for squeezing chocolate syrup on ice cream and tooting noisemakers by a TV set. It surprised me to learn that my teenaged friends used the night for raiding the family liquor cabinet, because their parents were dressed up and gone by eight o’clock.
‘You mean you’re stuck with your mom on New Year’s Eve?’ they would ask.
‘Yeah,’ I’d moan.
But it was my charming mother who was stuck.


She had a tough time after divorce. She was a nurse in a local hospital until some jealous colleagues find that she was a distraction to the male doctors and had to leave the hospital shortly after:
Pg83…
I would later learn that she had been fired from the hospital. I would later learn that some staff members felt that she was too much of a distraction to the male doctors, now that she was single. I would later learn that there had been some incident with a senior member of the staff and my mother had complained about inappropriate behavior. Her reward for standing up for herself was the suggestion that ‘it isn’t going to work out anymore.’


Before long, she found herself working as a beauty parlor and did part-time house cleaning with a friend who used to clean her house before divorce. Things had never been easy as she tried to put Chick and his sister through college:
Pg105…
‘Here,’ I said, holding out my hand, ‘I’d take the bats.’
‘I’d go up with you.’
‘No, it’s all right.’
‘But I want to see your room,’
‘Mom.’
‘What?’
‘Come on.’
‘What?’
‘You know. Come on’
I couldn’t think of anything else that wouldn’t hurt her feelings, so I just pushed my hand out farther. Her face sank. I was six inches taller than her now. She handed me the bats. I balanced them atop the trunk.
‘Charley,’ she said. Her voice was softer now, and it sounded different. ‘Give your mother a kiss.’
I put the trunk down with a small thud. I leaned toward her. Just then two older students came bounding down the stairs, feet thumping, voices loud and laughing. I instinctively jerked away from my mother.
‘Scuse please,’ one of them said as they maneuvered around us.


She had always loved Chick very much, went out of her way to let him know that his mother loved him more than everything else. However, he always tried to play it cool and felt that he had grown up to be a ‘man’ that he felt ashamed with those kisses and hugs that she always tried to shower him with.


Chick had always been a proud man. Too proud that he once made the international stage in baseball in the World Series thus was reluctant to do those ‘normal’ jobs after his baseball days as he faced injury. Too proud that he felt whatever he did was right that his family left him.

His wife, Catherine had given him chances time after time but all were taken for granted. The family was constantly in monetary dilemma and she finally left him with their daughter, Maria. Even long after the separation, they were still reluctant to reconcile with him; Maria was going to be married and all they did was to notify him by a card without the sender’s address or any other means of contact. Chick felt devastated:
Pg7…
It seemed to taunt my absence. And you weren’t there. I didn’t even know this guy. My ex-wife did. Our old friends did. And you weren’t there. Once again, I had been absent from a critical family moment. This time, my little girl would not take my hand and comfort me; she belonged to someone else. I was not being asked. I was being notified.
I looked at the envelope, which carried her new last name (Maria Lang, not Maria Benetto) and no return address (Why? Were they afraid I might visit them?), and something sunk so low inside me I couldn’t find it anymore. You get shut out of your only child’s life, you feel like a steel door has been locked; you’re banging, but they just can’t hear you.


As the story goes, the book is all about filial piety towards parents and obligations towards the family. Below are more extractions from the book:

Chick’s mom used to write many notes for him, often reminding him the never-ending motherly love for him:

Dear Charley
Have lots of FUN in SCHOOL today!
I will see you at lunchtime and we’ll get a milkshake.
I love you every day!
Mom…


July 20, 1959
Dear Charley-
I know you are scared but there is nothing to be scared about. We have all had our tonsils out and look at us. We’re OK!
You hold onto this letter. Put it under your pillow before the doctors come in. They’re going to make you sleepy and just before you fall asleep you can remember my letter is there and if you wake up before I get to your room, then you can reach under the pillow and read this again. Reading is like talking, so picture me talking to you there.
And soon I will be there.
And then you can have all the ice cream you want! How about that?
I love you every day.
Mom…


September 8, 1967
Charley-
How do you like my typing! I’ve been practicing at work on Henrietta’s typewriter. Pretty snazzy!
I know you won’t read this until after I have left. But in case I forgot because I was too excited by the whole idea of you being at college, I want to tell you something. I am so proud of you, Charley. You are the first person in our family to go to a university!
Charley, be nice to the people there. Be nice to your teachers. Always call them Mr. and Mrs. , even though I hear now college students call their teacher by their first names. I don’t think that’s right. And be nice with the girls you go out with. I know you don’t want love life advice from me, but even if girls find you handsome, that is not a license to be mean. Be nice.
And also get your sleep. Josie, who comes into the beauty parlor, says her son at college kept falling asleep during his classes. Don’t insult your teacher that way, Charley. Don’t fall asleep. It’s such a lucky thing you have, to be taught and to be learning and not having to be working in a shop somewhere.
I love you every day.
And now I will miss you every day.
Love,
Mom…


To my Charley on his wedding day-
I know you think these notes are silly. I have watched you scrunch your face over the years when I give them to you. But understand that sometimes I want to tell you something and I want to get it just right. Putting it down on paper helps me do that. I wish I had been a better writer. I wish I had gone to college. If I had, I think I would have studied English and maybe my vocabulary would have improved. So many times I feel I am using the same words over and over , like a woman wearing the same dress every day. So boring!
What I want to say to you, Charley, is you are marrying a wonderful girl. I think of Catherine in many ways like I think of Roberta. Like a daughter. She is sweet and patient. You should be the same with her, Charley.
Here is what you are going to find out about marriage: you have to work at it together. And you have to love three things. You have to love
1) Each other.
2) Your children (When you have some! Hint! Hint!
3) Your marriage.
What I mean by that last one is, there may be times that you fight, and sometimes you and Catherine won’t even like each other. But those are the times you have to love your marriage. It’s like a third party. Look at your wedding photos. Look at any memories you’ve made. And if you believe in those memories, they will pull you back together.
I’m very proud of you today, Charley. I am putting this in your tuxedo pocket because know how you lose things.
I love you every day!
Mom