For One More Day by Mitch Albom

For One More Day by Mitch Albom, Charles “Chick” Benetto has to go through the sorrow of losing his mom, walking away from baseball, and hating everyone, including himself in his life. He has to face reality and focus on his career, family, and his own life. Chick wants to spend one more day with a lost relative, his mom. Throughout his journey of picking himself up, he keeps going for the people that he misses and needs the most and learning how to forgive.

His father walking out, Chick never being there for his mom, and visiting/learning from an old friend allows Mitch Albom to show that one must forgive others and in one’s self.

Chick was a daddy’s boy for a while, until one day it flipped over and he was a momma’s boy. Him and his dad would play baseball with each other, his dad would go to his games, support him. Chick was a mirror when it came to his dad.

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One morning, Chick was getting ready for a baseball game and noticed how his dad wasn’t there to help him get ready. “‘When’s dad coming back?’ She didn’t answer” (Albom 22). Chick, later in his life, understands how his dad isn’t there for him anymore and how he was absent from his life. He comes to realization that when he was little and while growing, and his dad was around, his dad just wanted him to have a vigorous life and strive to be a great adult.

“‘...and I feel my fathers absence all over the room’” (Albom 77). This illustrates how Chick is in distress because of his dad. After his father leaves, he wants to recognize the fact that he has grown and taught himself how to be an adult.

Chicks mom passed away when he was youngish and throughout his life his mom would support him with everything he did. While his mom always being there and supporting him, he was never there for her. He would call her names, ignore her presence, and he never realized how important she was to him. “‘You smoke! You’re a hypocrite’” (Albom 85). This reveals how he would call his mother names. Chick wouldn’t accept getting in trouble by his mom, so he would fight back to whatever she had to say. Christmas Eve night, Chick and his little sister, Posey, heard “Santa” downstairs and went to investigate. He knew it was his mom from his first glance, but his sister didn’t, Chick called out his mom and shined a flashlight on her. “I keep that light on my mother and see her posture change - her head drops back, her shoulders slump, like a fugitive Santa caught by the cops” (Albom 77). This shows how Chick didn’t support his mom and later comes to realization that he was never there for her. He goes on his life path and learns how to forgive himself for what he did to her his whole life.

Thelma was a very close friend to the Benetto family. She struggles with a sickness her whole life and learns many different things in the Benetto families lives. When Chick and his mom go and visit Thelma in the hospital one day, Chicks mom goes to her and weeps over everything wrong that she did. Thelma explains to Chicks mom how she loved her and would forgive her for every poor decision/action that she made. “‘When someone is in your heart, they’re never truly gone. They come back to you at unlikely times’” (Albom 145). This illustrates how when Thelma talked to Chick that she wants him to know that people will always matter to you and that he needs to know that they will always be with him. She wants Chick to forgive himself of the past to move on. This is the same for when Thelma tells his mom that “‘sharing tales of those we’ve lost is how we keep from really losing them’” (Albom 197). Thelma wants her to teach Chick that’ll be forgiven and so will she with whatever path they take.

Watching his father walking out, Chick never being there for his mom, and visiting/learning from an old friend allows Mitch Albom to show that one must forgive others and in one’s self. Chick has many different life lessons from the people he loves without realizing it. Understand what people do, even if you don’t know how much it’ll benefit you later.

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