― Mitch Albom, For One More Day Quotations
Choose any 15 to write a dialogue journal response to. You may cut
and paste to the dialogue journal form.

“When someone is in your heart, they're never truly gone. They can come back to
you, even at unlikely times.”

“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.”

“But there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar
got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard
and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story,
because hers is where yours begin.”

“When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can
find on this earth.”

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.”

“I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their
swirling waters, and sometimes that means you'll never know what they endured,
and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't.”

“There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the
two do not line up, you make a choice. ”

“One day can bend your life.”

“Going back to something is harder than you think.”

“...You can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one
you wish you had back.”

“She put one hand on mine. “When someone is in your heart, they’re never truly
gone. They can come back to you, even at unlikely times.”

“Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.”

“Sharing tales of those we've lost is how we keep from really losing them.”

“It's such a shame to waste time. We always think we have so much of it.”

“I hope you never hear those words. Your mom. She died. They are different than
other words. They are too big to fit in your ears. They belong to some strange,
heavy, powerful language that pounds away at the side of your head, a wrecking
ball coming at you again and again, until finally, the words crack a hole large
enough to fit inside your brain. And in so doing, they split you apart. ”

“Kids chase the love that eludes them.”

“But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like
instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight
alone.”

“There's a story behind everything..but behind all your stories is always your
mother's story..because hers is where yours begins.”

“You can find something truly important in an ordinary minute.”

“You need to keep people close. You need to give them access to your heart.”

“She had a bottomless well of love for me.”

“It’s funny. I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him
which was harder, ascending or descending. He said without a doubt descending,
because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided
mistakes.
The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,” he said. “You have
to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.”

“Secrets tear you apart.”

“In college, I had a course in Latin, and one day the word "divorce" came up. I
always figured it came from some root that meant "divide." In truth, it comes
from "divertere," which means "to divert."

“I believe that. All divorce does is divert you, taking you away from everything
you thought you knew and everything you thought you wanted and steering you
into all kinds of other stuff, like discussions about your mother's girdle and
whether she should marry someone else.”

“When you're rotten about yourself, you become rotten to everyone else, even
those
you love.”

“You have one family, Charley. For good or bad. You have one family. You can’t
trade them in. You can’t lie to them. You can’t run two at once, substituting back
and forth.

“Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.”

“When death takes your mother, it steals that word forever.”

“I thought about the days I had handed over to a bottle..the nights I can't
remember..the mornings I slept thru..all the time spent running from myself.”

“I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how
much the trees have grown around your memories.”

“You can go through your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the
one you wish you had back. ”

“The more you defend a lie, the angrier you become.”

“A child embarrassed by his mother,” she said, “is just a child who hasn’t lived
long enough.”

“Something is always happening somewhere.”

“You count the hours you could have spent with your mother. It's a lifetime in
itself.”

“I saw in her expression that old, unshakable mountain of concern. And I realized
when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever
know”

“Things change when you're not in danger anymore.”

“Belief, hard work, love–you have those things, you can do anything.”

“Behind all your stories is always your mother's story. Because hers is where
yours begin.”

“Life goes quickly, doesn't it?”

“My mother was French Protestant, and my father was Italian Catholic, and their
union was an excess of God, guilt and sauce.”

“I made the wrong choice ," I whispered.
My mother shook her head.
"A child should never have to choose.”

“What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked
it's hard to believe you ever were a child?”

“Kids chase the love that eludes them, and for me, that was my father's love. He
kept it tucked away, like papers in a briefcase. And I kept trying to get in there.”

“Suddenly, details seemed extremely important. Details were something to grab
on to, a way to insert myself into the story.”

“By now, the morning sun was just over the horizon and it came at me like a
sidearm pitch between the houses of my old neighborhood. I shielded my eyes.
This being early October, there were already piles of leaves pushed against the
curb—more leaves than I remembered from my autumns here—and less open
space in the sky. I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a
while is how much the trees have grown around your memories.”

“She cared. She gave a crap. When I lacked even the self-respect to keep myself
alive, she dabbed my cuts and I fell back into being a son; I fell as easily as you
fall into your pillow at night. And I didn’t want it to end. That’s the best way I can
explain it. I knew it was impossible. But I didn’t want it to end.”

“This is a story about a family and, as there is a ghost involved, you might cal it a
ghost story. But every family is a ghost story. The dead sit at out tables long after
they have gone.”

“but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without
even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were
floating down some side branch of a river.”

“Tell me about your family," I said. And so she did. I listened intently as my
mother went through each branch of the tree. Years later, after the funeral, Maria
had asked me questions about the family - who was related to whom - and I
struggled. I couldn't remember. A big chunk of our history had been buried with
my mother. You should never let your past disappear that way.”