For One More Day by Mitch Albom

For One More Day

by Mitch Albom

“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? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.”

Our final book is about parent-children relationship. A book which everyone could relate to.

DISCUSSION LEADER- RYAN MARK L. CATANIO

Why do you think Chick tried to commit suicide? Was it for his ruined life, or was there something else behind it?

-     No, we think that it was because of his ruined life and there is nothing else. Because when we say there was something else behind it, then what else could it be? There is nothing else. Chick, we think, wanted to end-up his life because of his ruined life. His daughter didn’t even invite him to her wedding, he was divorced to his wife, he got no friend and he got no life at all. So, what else could it be?

What if Chick didn’t commit suicide? Would it change his life, or just remain the same?

-     No, it would just remain the same. Because at first, we agreed that, it was his death that changes his current fate. In his death, he had given a chance to change his mistake, where he succeeds. He changes his fate, he was reunited to his family and her daughter recognized him again. He was forgiven by the others and he forgave himself also. But now, what if he didn’t commit suicide? We think that his fate and life would not change, it would still be ruined. He will continue his life, with the same routine as he was used to be. Then, he will die without reuniting to his family.

In the end of the story, it was revealed that the narrator is actually the daughter of Chick, so, how do you feel about it?

-     We feel actually shock but excited, though we also feel sad, because it is in the ending part where the narrator revealed her identity.  We feel sympathy toward the narrator, because her father died with that kind of life but we also feel happy, because her father find a way to make them reunite and to be forgiven and the narrator also forgave herself for what she did to her father.

What if the narrator is another person? Would the ending have the same effect as the narrator is Chick’s daughter, or would it be different?

-     No, it would be different and not as great as it will be when the narrator is Chick’s daughter. Because, we think that the revelation of the narrator’s identity, somehow adds a big drama to the whole story.

Is it possible to have the same event, where in your death you have given a chance to change your greatest mistake?

-     Maybe yes, maybe no. Half of our group did not say yes, because of the fact that the book is only fiction, and there is no factual evidence that could provide that this kind of even can possible be happen. But some of us did say yes, including me. Because we believe that God (thought God was not mentioned in the story) will find a way to for you to have a chance to change your fate and to make the right things out of your mistakes. Maybe not on death, but on our daily lives. We made mistake and we take times making it, but God also given us time to change it; to make the wrong things right.

COMMENT: Great questions raised! My favorite was the last one.  Is it possible to have the same event, where in your death you have given a chance to change your greatest mistake? I've thought of that really hard. What if? I have so many regrets in my life, so many mistakes. However, if I change something in history, my whole life would turn out to be different and I wouldn't have known the people I treasure so much today.

PASSAGE PICKER- JOHN SALVADOR DEMDAM

“For One More Day” is a story about Chick or Charley (as what her mother calls him), who tried to commit suicide. Wanting to kill himself triggered when he received a wedding photo of his daughter Maria, and the story goes on with his imagination or let me say hallucination having the memories back again when he was on his childhood and younger days, and this let him realize a lot of things.

While reading this novel, heartaches and of course realizations take place within me. It is more of thinking what should I do, for me not to regret things when the time comes, when the time that the important things in my life will vanish. Later on, I will share more, after I will present the passage I chose from this novel.

As the passage picker, I picked this passage/conversation of Charley and her mother Posey.

"You should have had more dinner." she said.

I rolled my eyes "Come on".

"What? I like knowing you've eaten, that's all. You have to take care of yourself Charley."

I wish we'd done this before, Mom, you know?"

"You mean before I died?"

My voice went timid. "Yeah"

"I was here".

"I know".

"You were busy".

I wouldn't like to have this kind of conversation someday. Aside from the reason that I would be afraid, that someday I'll be just talking to myself alone and have an imaginary conversation with my mom, Hohoho . I think that's quite horrible, but I think it’s okay? maybe super okay? However, the conversation actually tells us of Charley's regret of rejecting his mother for some of his mother’s doings unto him. He also close his mind and didn’t listen of some of what his mother is telling him. He just blamed of what happened to his earlier life to his mother. And that is what he regrets most.

My mother also lacked her attention to us. I had also many questions before. It’s too many to mention the questions. Although I didn’t get all the answers of it, I still didn’t think of bad things to my mother. The thought is that she's still the one who carried me for nine months on her womb and bore me. Somehow she took care of me when I was young (I said somehow, because as what I've said, she lacked her attention on us). Actually my mom is not present at this very moment. She's not with us. Nonetheless, I just want to figure out, how my mother is very important for me. After my father's death, all I wanted is just to be with my mother always. I wanted to be at her side. Although I didn’t regret on my father's death, I just really wanted to express what love I have for my mother. Actually I am ashamed sometimes of expressing it to my mom, but what's in my mind is that, will I express my love for my mom when she's already gone? No way. That is why, even though that she's afar from me, I am trying my best and make time to communicate with her, to share how am I doing at school, to share all those failed exam scores and indeed, my mother is really the one who made me strong and still go on. She advices me to take care of myself and not mind of those scores, for those scores will just let me have headache and heartache, how caring.

So that's it! Let us not wait for the time, because now is the time. Let us not hesitate to express our feelings to our parents. I know how it feels that it’s quite shameful, but let us just have it this way: Just imagine your self being a parent someday. What would you feel if your children will share or open up something on you? How does it feel?

You know, our parents are just waiting for us. They are always there for us and they will never leave us.

COMMENT: Ate Herlyn Faye Dela Rosa once told me, "We often fail to write our name's middle initial not knowing it's one way to pay respect ro our mother.". It was an eye opener for me. Sometimes, we jut take our parents for granted, knowing that they're always there by our side.  We only realize their importance once they are gone. So as long as they are still with us, we must show them how much they matter to us.

CHARACTER CAPTAIN- ELAIZA TERO

Charles “Chick” Benetto – the protagonist and from the point of view of the unnamed narrator comes to his point of view narrating his life. Charles or Chick was a baseball player and said to be a strong, cocky athlete, muscular and tall; a good looking guy. He was a Papa’s when his father was still living with them. Chick grew up with his mother and sister, and for a long time his longed for a fatherly love. He married Catherine and they had a daughter named Maria. Chick was a depressed man and tried to kill himself, and run away finding himself back to his old house  there he had an hallucination seeing again his mother and by that Chick knew the things he haven’t knew when he’s still young, there he also realized that taking for granted his Mom’s love is one of the biggest mistakes he made in his life.

Pauline “Posey” Benneto- The mother of Chick, described as  a beautiful woman *according to Chick)  had large, almond-shaped eyes, dark and creamy complexion, indeed a very attractive and candid woman. After her husband left them, she worked as a hairdresser to support her family. In the novel you can see that Posey had been a good mother to Chick and Roberta, she only wanted her son and daughter the good for them. She died because of a heart attack. And even if she’s already dead, Chick’s memories of her, helped Chick to realize the things he made.

Leonard “Len” Benetto – The father of Chick, and was said to be Chick’s great sportsbuddy partner. He was a perfectionist father, he wanted to make decisions out of his wife’s permission, and because of that they divorced and that causes Chick to grew up without a father.

Roberta Benetto- Chick’s sister. She was described as a lovely girl and a Mama’s girl. At her young age, she understands her family’s great dilemma starting when their father left them.

Catherine- Chick’s wife, they had a daughter named Maria, and her relationship with Chick didn’t work for a long time and Chick decided to end up their relationship.

Maria- The daughter of Chick, it was revealed in the end that she was the narrator of the first part and last part of the novel.

COMMENT: God job Elaiza! 

CONNECTOR- ARJUN DANGO

Since the story is about the strong bond of connections of the parents and their child, I can connect and relate this story to the story of my uncle and his daughter.

Let me first tell the story of my uncle, Ramil, and my cousin Mimi. Since birth, Mimi suffers from a disorder which I forgot what it is called, and my uncle gives more attention to Mimi because of her condition. There are certain words that I cannot forget what he said to his wife, “If I will die first before Mimi, I’ll get her because I don’t want her to suffer from her condition.” After months or a year, he died because of heart attack. At his burial, my cousin told my aunt that he was there, watching over Mimi. Months or a year after that incident, Mimi died because of multiple organ failure in the age of 5. At her burial, again, my cousin saw my uncle, but this time, he’s with Mimi now. He said that Mimi grew very beautiful and normal, very different from her condition while she was alive.

We can see the sense of connections of those who were alive and already dead, how the dead show their care to their love ones in the living world, and how the living misses their late love ones. It may sound strange, but we are influenced by the words of those who passed away and never forget what always tell us. Like for Chick Benetto, he was still pursuing his father’s dream for him. And in Seungri’s character in Angel Eyes, he bought her grandmother new undergarment when he got his fist salary. Whatever misfortunes we encounter in our life, merriment or not, let’s always remember that our parents are always there for us even if they’re gone. 

COMMENT: This brought me goosebumps! Especially the ability of Aj's cousin to see ghosts. It only shows that even people aren't here with us anymore, when we matter a lot to them, they would still show care. No matter what happens. They will find a way.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR- RONALD II SURILLA

A Son’s Love

The wounds lies in your stomach
was served as my first shelter
there was food and cover
as I sleep comfortably from your pocket

Through pain I was deliver
as both tears shed that day
the moment I was given to my receiver
your warmth arms indeed I lay

Your love is exceptional and true
but my response are forced and few
for I was shy of my feelings
especially in times of my beatings

Sorry for making myself clever
all I want to say is I love you my mother

COMMENT: Ronald's poem is very heartfelt. Knowing that his father's not around anymore, I feel proud and amazed at the same time because he's really a responsible son and brother to her younger siblings. Kudos Ronald!

SUMMARIZER- JERMAINE L. DELA CRUZ (YOURS TRULY)

“This is a story about a family, and as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story.  But every family is a ghost story.  The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.”

This seemingly haunted story, as it was constructed as apparitions experienced by the protagonist, the novel begins with the introduction of the narrator to be believed by the readers as Chick Benetto, the protagonist in the novel as it was his own perspective.

Chick's narrative begins with a description of his attempted suicide, due to the mail containing a photograph of his daughter's wedding - a wedding to which he wasn't invited. Chick sees it as a disappointment to his ego as a failure to his fatherhood. He prepares to kill himself, and then sets off on one last journey to the small California town where he grew up. As he nears the town he rolls his car in an attempt to avoid collision with a transport truck, but survives. Unknowingly, he experiences a near-death experience. He walks into town, climbs the same water tower he climbed as a child, and jumps off in another attempt to kill himself. He survives the fall and awakens to see his long dead mother standing over him.

Chick walks into town, not believing what's happening is real but continues to go thru it. He arrives at his childhood home, discovers that his mother is there, and sits down to the breakfast she prepares, still disbelieving but thankful for "one more day" with his mother. At first everything seems incredibly normal: his mother chatting with her friends, as she always was and doing all stuffs she used to be doing when she was alive.

Throughout the conversation he goes back and forth between the one last day he had with his mother and the important events in his life, sharing his feelings– both past and present– about them. His recollections of his past, which focus on his increasingly desperate attempts to engage his father in an affectionate, open relationship are, in turn, focused on baseball, which Chick's father wants him to play professionally. As a young boy Charley Benetto makes the choice to be a daddy’s boy and does everything his father asks him to.  Then his father disappears, leaving a broken family and an embarrassing situation for the young Charley to endure.  Being raised by a single mother has its challenges and plenty of embarrassment; many that Charley takes out on his mother.

This experience is sometimes interrupted by a male voice coming from Chick knows-nowhere. The climax is when Posey takes Chick to visit his father's other wife, and Chick is brought back to the world of the living by a young ambulance attendant who is actually the source of the voice heard throughout the novel. With this experience, he realizes the importance of having good relationship between parents and their children.

In the epilogue listing evidence that suggests Chick's story is true, it is also revealed to the readers that the narrator is in fact Chick's long-estranged daughter Maria, whose narration seems to be an embodiment of one of the novel's key themes. Chick died about five years after his near-death experience.

VOCABULARY ENRICHER- HARA VESSA ESCABARTE

Inexorably – (adj.) impossible to stop or prevent: the seemingly inexorable march of new technology: not able to be stopped or changed, not to be persuaded, moved or stopped: relentless.

            One day can bend your life, and that day seemed to bend mine inexorably downward. (P.6)

Ricochet – (n.) a glancing rebound (as a projectile of flat surface); also an object that ricochets.

            “I don’t know, Chick, It’s like a ricochet.” (P.23)

Apparition (n.) – a ghost or spirit of a dead person.

           

I couldn’t tell at that point who or what Rose was. An apparition? A real person? Her house felt real enough. (P. 41)

Admonished (v.) - to indicate duties or obligations; to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest or solicitous manner.

            We sat there, admonished, lowering our heads to the obligatory level for penance. (P.48)

Mimicked (adj.) a person who copies someone’s behavior in speech especially for humor

            I mimicked his deep, smoky laugh. (p. 13)

Maneuvered (v.) – to move something in a careful and usually a skillful way. (p.4)

To do something in an effort to get an advantage, get out of a difficult situation. (p.53)

As I stood at the backstop, my finger curled in the chain-link fence, an old man maneuvered a lawn mower over the grass. (p. 4)

I instinctively jerked away from my mother. “’Scuse please.” One of them said as ther maneuvered around us. (p.53)

Grimaced (n)- a facial reaction in which your mouth and face are twisted in a way that shows disgust, disapproval or pain. (p.27 & 53)

                        ,.. and she grimaced at the cuts and mumbled … (p.27)

                        She grimaced as if a pain were passing through her. (p. 54)

Inadvertently (adj.) Not intended or not planned

                        She also, inadvertently, invented my nickname. (p. 57)

Prophecies (n) - an inspired utterance of a prophet, a statement that something will happen in the future.

After the war, my father, who owned a liquor store, was more interested in profits than prophecies.

Fugitive (n) – a person who flees or tries to escape; something elusive or hard to find

            Now I walked toward that house with my back hunched like a fugitive. (p. 21)

I keep that light on my mother and I see her posture change, her head drops back, her shoulders slump, like a fugitive Santa caught by the cops. (p. 40)

           

Prerogative (n) - a right or privilege; a special right or privileged that some people have.

            “Oh, a woman’s prerogative, I guess.” (p.74)

Ornery (adj.) – easily annoyed or angered; having an irritable disposition

            I grew ornery and distant. (P. 7)

Taunt (n.) – a sarcastic challenge or insult (p. 8)

            It seemed to taunt my absence.

Blundering (v.) – to make a stupid or careless mistake.

            When he went blundering back to God, …. (p. 8)

            Blundering back to God. (p. 10)

Devoid (adj.) – being without a usual, typical, or being expected attribute or accompaniment

I was a zombie, a robot, devoid of concern for anyone, myself included myself, actually, at the top of the list. (P.12)

AUTHORS PURPOSE

As the vocabulary enricher of the group, based on the level of the words that was written above, the author’s purpose in using these highlighted words, is to inculcate unto our mind that these are used to fit in the idea of the author, it is most likely the very appropriate words that could be used to complete his thoughts that he wanted to express, it is also to covey vivid descriptions in dealing with the book that could help his readers to enhance their vocabulary.

 COMMENT: Hara did her part very well. To add to the author's purpose, I believe Albom used these words not to give his readers a hard time but to be able to express his ideas very well.