FOR ONE MORE DAY - A Review

Title: For One More Day
Author: Mitch Albom (Author of Tuesdays with Morrie)

"If you had the chance, just once chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it? And if you did, would you be big enough to stand it?...."
- James McBride, author of The Color of Water

For One More Day is a very good story about family - mistakes, love, and forgiveness. It's a short, yet very inspirational story that will make you cry at some point (yeah, I did). A good read for people who are losing hope, and faith, and self-love.

Warning: The book is kind of overly-sentimental in most part of the story, so this is not for people who hate dramas and the usual tearjerky stories shown in MMK.

The story is about a man, a former Baseball Star named Chick Benetto, who had a chance to spend one more day with his mother, who died 8 years earlier. The plot of the story moves back and forth between Chick's childhood memories and the current actions happening between Chick and his dead mother's ghost (so yeah, you can also call this a ghost story). Chick's beautiful and happy family-life started to fall apart when his mother died. And that's when his dilemma in life started.

Just like other people who go through too much rain in life, Chick started to hate and ruin his life 'till he reached his saturation limit - getting to the point of trying to take away his own life. When Chick tries to commit suicide, he found himself in a world with its own time in-between life and death, where he had the chance to see, talk, and spend another day with his mother, who even after her death, did not fail to show his son, and make him feel, the eternal power of a mother's love.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick and inspirational read. A great story of redemption and making peace with one's past and mistakes. And I think that's what makes this book extra special.

Just to share: I remember talking to a friend before. I told him I am moving on and will forget all that had hurt me in the past. He said, "No...you musn't forget them...they should always exist." He continued, "You don't even need to act like they don't exist because they do... and they're the reason why you are moving on... a GOOD REASON... a lesson that YOU WILL NEVER FORGET." It's one of his ways of turning negative things into positive (Thanks Jaime). And I must admit I like what he said. For One More Day teaches the same lesson - make peace with your past, forgive yourself, move on, and start over.

Waaaahh....this is just too much of a drama. XD Harharhar.

AFTERWORD:
It's a heartbreakingly-wonderful and uplifting story that will give you the desire to cherish and love whatever you have around you and whoever you have in your life right now - that's how the story serves its purpose. So yeah, go and hug your mom, or whoever it is that you want to hug.

Hugs to everyone. Especially, to YOU!

REMEMBERING DAD

Death The permanent termination of the biological
functions that define a living organism

.
Death is as natural as life...they exist together; life followed by death. It is expected that when life begins, death will follow sooner or later. It happens on everything. And it will happen to everyone. Meron psychologist student dati, nabasa ko sa newspaper, he killed himself because he can't see his reason for living, something that almost happened to me, yun lang, masyado syang nadaig ng psychological-whatever nya, nabaliw na siguro siya ng tuluyan kakaisip kung bakit nga ba kailangan pang mabuhay kung mamamatay rin naman.

"Every man dies - Not every man really lives."
-William Ross Wallace

I mentioned to an American friend that it's my dad's 5'th death anniversary today. He asked me if we really celebrate it. Haha...of course we don't celebrate it, we just remember it. We then got into a bit of argument about remembering the dead.

"I don't really see your point. Why do you remember your dead? They're gone. They don't exist anymore. They're nothing. Zilch!", that's my friend speaking.

I was thinking of a witty comeback answer but I wasn't able to produce any, so I just simply said, "We want to."

"You just want to???", he said, "Dead people are...obviously...dead. They're dirt now. Going to their grave, giving flowers, lighting candles, offering food, or whatever other weird things that you do to your dead, are totally illogical." Him sounding very analytical and logical.

Arrrggghh.... I wanted to smack him, but I wasn't really in the mood for any physical fight and argument. Obviously, he doesn't understand how I feel. The only culture he knows is his and his Korean students'.

I answered, "Death ended my father's life, but not the relationship that exists between us. So shut the hell up!!! (of course I din't say the last part. hehe)

Buti talaga tumigil sya, dahil malapit na malapit ko na sya masapok. Pero naiintindihan ko sya, dahil kung sa mga matatanda nga nila eh wala silang pakialam, lalo na siguro sa mga yumao. (Tagalog para hindi nya maintindihan sakaling mabasa nya 'to, hehe.)