760 WJR’s Mitch Albom Celebrates 25 Years of “Tuesdays with Morrie”

Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

NEW YORK CITY, Wednesday, September 28, 2022 ~ 760 WJR’s Mitch Albom was on NBC’s “Today with Hoda & Jenna” this week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his best-selling memoir, “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

“I think the reason it became what it did was because a lot of people identify with me back then … type A, working like 80 hours a week, and then all of a sudden you encounter this little professor and he says, ‘listen … when you get to the end, no one’s going to care how much you work … it’s going to be the friends that you’ve made; the family that you had’,” Mitch told hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush.

“And I watched this in front of me and I realized, He’s 78-years-old … dying … I’m 37-years-old … perfectly healthy, and he’s 10 times more content with his life. What’s the matter with this picture?”

VIDEO:

September 26, 2022 ~ In honor of the 25th anniversary of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” author Mitch Albom opens up about how the book changed his own life, as well as the lives of millions of readers.

(CONTINUED) “Tuesdays with Morrie” chronicles the final days of Sociology Professor Morrie Schwartz, who in 1995 was dying of Lou Gehrig‘s disease. Mitch, a successful sportswriter and former student of the professor, was motivated to go and visit Morrie after seeing him on an episode of “Nightline.” Just by happenstance, a writer’s strike allowed Mitch to travel to Massachusetts and meet with Morrie every Tuesday.

The resulting story was a final class that offered enriching perspectives on aging, regrets, pity, love, death, and life. More than 18-million copies have been sold globally.

“The last conversation we had … he said I want you to come to my grave and visit me. And I said, ‘Okay.’ ‘But not the way other people do. I want you to come with a blanket and some sandwiches and I want you to sit there, and I want you to talk to me.’ And I said, ‘You want me to talk to you?’ He said, ‘Just like we’re talking now.’ I said, ‘it won’t be like we’re talking now because you won’t be able to talk back.’ And he looked at me as if I were being very naive and he said, ‘well Mitch … I’ll make you a deal. After I’m dead, you talk; I’ll listen.’ And, that has been true. I hear him all the time … because if you lead your life as he did … making time for other people … then when they die, they’re not 100% gone.”