“Death Ends a Life, Not a Relationship” (Mitch Albom, “Tuesdays with Morrie”).

There are movies which make us laugh and others which bring us to tears. Some scare us and others motivate us to achieve the impossible. Yet, rarely are there movies which change us…I mean really change us. “Tuesdays with Morrie” is one those rare movies. This TV movie was based on the book by the same title, which was written by Mitch Albom, in tribute to his former Brandeis University professor and mentor Morrie Schwartz.
Morrie is known for many of his witty quotes and here are just a few of those:

“When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
“When you're in bed, you're dead.”
“We must love one another or die.”

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” What are your thoughts regarding this statement? Each February and August, we have a 4-session support group for our St. Joseph Hospice bereaved. During our 4th session, we have discussed Dr. William Worden’s 4th Task of Mourning “Emotionally Relocating the Deceased…” (“Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, 3rd Edition”—updated “To Find an Enduring Connection With the Deceased” in the 4th Edition). I tell participants that in the early days of grief counseling, it was thought that the goal of the grief process was to disconnect from the deceased loved one. First of all, that was an impossibility. Secondly, therapists realized that even if that disconnection was possible, this would not be a healthy manner to deal with a loved one’s death.
So, it would surely appear that Morrie was correct in his assessment—loved one’s die but relationships live on. In your experiences, how have you continued relationships with your loved ones who are gone? How much does their influence affect you even now?

Copyright © 2014 by Kim Smith