Letters of the Heart – February 2014

One More Day… 

Author Mitch Albom says that for his book For One More Day, he became fascinated by how people answer this question: If they could spend one more day with a loved one already departed, how would they spend it? What would they do?

Albom says in a piece for Parade, that he found time and again that people wanted to spend an ordinary day doing ordinary things with the people they had loved. Almost everyone, he says wanted to tell the person that they loved him or her one more time. Some said they wanted to do the habitual things they always did with the person, such as head to the racetrack, or eat in a favorite hamburger joint and talk about old times.

One son wished that he could share knowledge that would have relieved his father from guilt over an incident where the father threw a snowball and accidentally blinded another son. Later, after the father’s death, the family learned that the son had a condition that had predisposed him to this happening. He wanted to give his father the gift of lifting his burden.

One man longed for a moment with his son who died in a car accident. He wanted to go for a walk with him in the woods that had been their getaway.

Albom says asking people about this scenario, helped him understand what we yearn for. Often, he says, it’s not something exotic or faraway. It’s about connection. And realizing that a normal day is something we should all treasure, he says.

With that, what would you wish to say if you had one more day with your loved ones? Why not say it now.