Tuesday’s with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson

For 35 years a professor of sociology at Brandeis University, Dr. Morrie Schwartz mentors Albom at Brandeis and the two become friends. Morrie’s published books and research concern hospitalized mental patients. His interest in the human mind carries over to his own terminal illness—he has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease—and he decides to make his own death a subject of study. He also conducts a “living funeral” so that friends and family can say goodbye. Morrie’s conversations with Ted Koppel on Nightline lead to a series of chats with Albom on the meaning of life; these talks form the basis of Tuesdays with Morrie. 

Anchorman of the ABC late-night news program Nightline, Ted learns about Morrie from an associate who has read Morrie’s aphorisms in The Boston Globe, and he travels to Massachusetts to interview the dying professor. He’s surprised to find Morrie interrogates him before the interview—Morrie twice watched Nightline, thought Ted “a narcissist,” and wants to make sure he’s a good person—but they get along well, and the interview becomes widely discussed. Ted and his team return for a second and third interview and learn of Morrie’s further discoveries and insights into death. Their first interview is watched by Albom, who then contacts Morrie and begins the series of talks between them that form the basis for Tuesdays with Morrie. 

Charlotte is Morrie’s wife of 44 years. She has known him since their college days, and they share a mutual respect and understanding so deep that they interact almost without the need for words. She continues her work at MIT during Morrie’s final illness; this is as Morrie wished, as he doesn’t want his dysfunction to damage others in the family. Charlotte is a “private person,” and Morrie carefully protects that privacy. 

Janine is Albom’s wife. She’s a singer, and she visits Morrie one Tuesday with her husband and sings to Morrie. With Albom, she brings a young cancer-ridden Haitian girl to live with them, an act of reaching out to others that arises from Morrie’s teachings. 

One of four attendants who help Morrie with eating, bathing, dressing, and other activities his illness prevents him from performing, Connie teaches Albom how to perform some of the physical therapy activities that help Morrie deal with his advancing ALS.

A Russian immigrant to New York, Charlie works as a laborer in the fur industry in the 1920s and ‘30s but suffers bouts of unemployment. His first wife, Morrie’s mother, becomes ill and dies; he next marries Eva, who becomes Morrie’s loving stepmother.