Be Like Morrie

I just finished listening to Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.  It was read by the author and had some out takes at the end of his interviews with Morrie.  I had heard about this book, but am just now getting around to reading it.  I picked this book because it was one of my BINGO summer reading squares, and I could get the audio book from the library.  Honestly,  I have to say it was life changing for me.  I literally was weeping during the last 30 minutes of this book; which is fine unless you are riding your bike on the road!  However, I digress, what my biggest take away from this book was that the views of Morrie resonated those of PJ and his outlook on life.  I felt like I was able to connect to the old man that PJ won't have the opportunity to become.  I learned so much about the college age PJ upon his death, at his funeral and afterwards.    There were many who spoke of his impact on them whether it was loaning someone his car, giving them a place to stay, visiting a professor after he had surgery, being helpful with a smile on his face, and many other acts of kindness.  One lady at church commented a few weeks after PJ passed away that she was carrying stuff from her car to the fellowship hall at church and PJ ran up to help her.  He went to school with her son, so of course, he asked about Spencer, her family and herself.  This brought both tears and a smile to my face. Like Morrie, PJ believed in investing in people and relationships. I don't think it is happenstance that this book came onto my radar right now.  I'll even go so far as to say that it is helping me with the grieving process.  I anticipate that I will re-listen to this book at some point-maybe even a couple times.

I've included this picture as it was the last photo I took of PJ [center].  This was taken on Sunday 11/15 [3 days before he died], he had gone to our church and spent the day catching up with people and giving hugs.  I guess that was his way of saying good bye.  Later that afternoon we met up to enjoy football, food and beer and then PJ came over to our apartment for dinner and more hanging out.  How I wish I was in this photo as well, and that when he left that evening I would have hugged him even tighter.  I'm pretty sure that PJ read Tuesdays with Morrie, and I think he would agree that if we could be more like Morrie this world would be a much better place.