tuesday with morrie

• Tuesdays with Morrie is a book by Mitch Albom about his old professor Morrie Schwartz
• The book describes Morrie's final class on the Meaning of Life, which he taught from his home as he was dying of ALS
• Mitch Albom was the only student in Morrie's final class
• Morrie was a professor of sociology who had written several well-respected books
• Morrie was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in the summer of 1994
• Morrie


  • He was a small man who took small steps
  • He had sparkling blue-green eyes, thinning silver hair, big ears, a triangular nose, and tufts of graying eyebrows
  • When he smiled it was as if you'd just told him the first joke on earth
  • He had crooked teeth with his lower ones slanted back
• Morrie loved to dance and would go to "Dance Free" events in Harvard Square, dancing to all kinds of music
• Morrie developed asthma in his sixties which made it difficult for him to dance
• Morrie was eventually diagnosed with ALS, a terminal neurological disease
• Morrie decided to make his death his "final project" and teach about the experience of dying
• Morrie held a "living funeral" where friends and family paid tribute to him while he was still alive
• Mitch Albom had lost contact with Morrie after graduating college, but reconnected with him when he learned Morrie was dying
• Only Morrie wasn't dead yet
• The most unusual part of Morrie's life was about to unfold
• The Student


  The narrator, who had lost contact with Morrie and others after graduating college
• The narrator did not keep in touch with Morrie after graduating
• The narrator lost contact with most of the people he knew in college, including his beer-drinking friends and the first woman he ever woke up with
• The years after graduation hardened the narrator into someone quite different from the strutting graduate who left campus
• The narrator's dream was to be a famous musician, but after several years of dark, empty nightclubs, broken promises, bands that kept breaking up and producers who seemed excited about everyone but him, the dream soured
• The narrator had his first serious encounter with death when his favorite uncle, who had been like a father figure, died of pancreatic cancer
• After the funeral, the narrator's life changed - he felt time was suddenly precious and he could not move quickly enough
• The narrator returned to school, earned a master's degree in journalism and took a job as a sports writer
• The narrator bounced around from New York to Florida and eventually took a job in Detroit as a columnist for the Detroit Free Press
• The narrator became part of the media thunderstorm, penning columns, writing sports books, doing radio shows, and appearing regularly on TV
• The narrator buried himself in accomplishments, believing he could control things and squeeze in every last piece of happiness before he got sick and died like his uncle
• The narrator thought about Morrie now and then, but it was always in the distance, as if from another life
• The narrator did not know of Morrie's illness because he had thrown away any mail that came from Brandeis University
• In March 1995, Ted Koppel's limousine pulled up to Morrie's house in West Newton, Massachusetts
• Morrie was in a wheelchair full-time, getting used to helpers lifting him, and his legs were dead - he would never walk again
• Morrie refused to be depressed and instead became a lightning rod of ideas, jotting down his thoughts on yellow pads, envelopes, folders, and scrap paper
• A Boston Globe reporter wrote a long feature story on Morrie with the headline "A Professor's Final Course: His Own Death"
• The "Nightline" show producer brought the article to Ted Koppel, who then went to interview Morrie at his home
• The "Nightline" program featuring Morrie aired on a Friday night
• The narrator was casually flipping channels when he heard Ted Koppel ask "Who is Morrie Schwartz?"
• The narrator enters Morrie's office in the spring of 1976 and notices the countless books lining the walls
• The narrator arrives at Morrie's house in West Newton, Massachusetts, with a cup of coffee and a cellular phone, talking to a TV producer
• The narrator sees Morrie in a wheelchair in the driveway with two other people and freezes, not wanting to immediately greet him
• The narrator continues his phone conversation with the TV producer while Morrie waits for him to emerge from the car
• When the narrator finally gets out of the car, Morrie hugs him tightly, welcoming him back after all these years
• Morrie was hugging the narrator, his thinning hair rubbing against the narrator's cheek