If We Only Had the Chance to Spend One More Day

When I saw Mitch Album on a couple of talk shows promoting his new book For One More Day, I knew instantly that I wanted to read it. I heard Mitch say a couple of times on a couple of different shows, “What if you could spend just one more day with a loved one that has passed on?” Wouldn’t most of us want the chance to do this? To have one last opportunity to say things that were never said or learn things that were never learned or perhaps just to hug them one last time, or say good bye. In this book a man named Chick Benetto gets the chance to do just that.

For One More Day

Chick Benetto had always wanted his father’s approval. He had a mother that was there for him through every step of his life, but because his father was emotionally un-available it was his love and approval that he had always sought after. Because it was father’s biggest hope for him and because he had natural talent, Chic became a very promising baseball player. But his professional career had been cut short by an injury.

Now several years later Chick pretty much lives his life in an alcoholic daze. His loving mother had passed away several years back, his wife left him years before, and now his only daughter has gotten married and Chic had not even been invited to the wedding, for fear that he would make a scene. After finding out about his daughter's wedding, and the fact that he had not been invited, Chic had finally hit rock bottom and thought that ending his life would probably be for the best.

Drunk as could be Chick gets in his car and begins driving back to the town where he grew up. After Chic hits a semi and flies off the road into a billboard he finds that he is still able to walk and then discovers that he has somehow gotten to his old house, the one he had once shared with his sister and his mother. When he goes inside he discovers his Mother is in the house looking much like she did when he had seen her for the last time before her death. Chic is shocked and confused but his Mother acts like this is just any other ordinary day, and this includes her cooking breakfast for him and pleading for him to eat. She takes Chic along with her as she goes through her normal everyday routine the routine, that she had during the last years of her life. Along the way Chic learns that there is a lot more to his Mother than he really knows and a lot more about his father as well. Chic learns through the experiences of the day and through many flash backs that he needs to forgive him-self and make the best of the life he has.

This book proves that a mother’s love is even transcends death.

Set Up

The book mostly goes in and out of the current days events and takes you back in to Chic’s history gowing up and his relationship with his parents. Chic’s relationship with his father was difficult, but Chic had always wanted his affection, even after his father had left his family when he was a boy. Chic's father left his Mother to raise Chic and his sister as a single Mother. At the time when Chic was a boy divorce was frowned upon, and Chic’s Mother Posey’s good looks only made things even more difficult for her. But she was a strong willed woman and survivor, although Chic didn’t really realize it at the time.

Along with the flash backs there are pages stuck in that were entitled: Times my Mother Stuck Up For Me, and Times I Didn’t Stick Up For My Mother. There is no doubt the Chic has a lot of guilt feelings as far as his mother is concerned. He realizes that while his mother was always there for him and always did the best she could for him that he was not always there for her, and sometimes treated her unfairly.

My Thoughts

I rather like the way that the book was set up. Normally I get kind of irritated by books that continuously flash back leaving you to wonder what is to happen next in the here and now of the story. But the flashbacks and the little stories intertwined within the stories are kept brief and really do explain how Chic got to where he is and things he may have missed out on picking up on when he was growing up.

I love that Chic had the opportunity to get a final gift from his Mother, one that would change the rest of the life that he had left to live. Think how many lives would be changed if we could just have one more day with someone who truly loved us. Someone who only wanted the best for us and was not afraid to say, “Look, you have screwed up, but it is not too late for you. Forgive yourself. Pick yourself up and fly straight.” These are my own words and these words were never really spoken in this way, but that is the main message Chic’s mother was trying to convey.

This is a beautifully written story that is very easy to read. The chapters are very short, and the book itself is not that long. It is not fast paced or exiting, but it is a nice journey through the eyes of someone who needed his Mother just one last time.

The book is nice and comforting, the story is not intense but yet it is still interesting, and is most of all touching, and somewhat inspirational. I love the concept of this book, I love how it was written, and I was touched by For One More Day, by Mitch Album. I of course would recommend this book.