I was a mother.'' Mitch says he was floored by his mother's response and wrote the conversation into a scene in For One More Day. 'I remember having a conversation with her once, saying 'I've got my career and all this and it's too bad-so sad that you didn't get a chance to do all these things.' And she said to me, 'I did do what I wanted to do. From that point forward, Mitch says that taking care of the family became her number one priority. She was going to be the first person in her family to go to college-and her father died when she was 16 years old,' Mitch says. 'My mom, like a lot of people of her generation, she had big dreams and plans. Mitch's mother influenced the characters in For One More Day in many ways. 'I really wanted to hand this to my mother while she was still here and say, 'Here, this is something you should read.'' I wrote The Five People You Meet In Heaven, but my Uncle Eddie never read a word of it,' Mitch says.

'I wrote Tuesdays with Morrie, but never read a word of it. The book became a tribute to his mother and Mitch is thankful she was able to read it. And I literally stopped that other book on whatever page it was on and began For One More Day that day.' 'I was depressed over something that hadn't happened yet and I realized, wow, if you feel that strongly about it now, maybe this should be what you're writing. Mitch began thinking about what he would say to his mom if he knew that they only had one more day together. 'When I hung up the phone I was hit with this wave of sadness-and I thought, what's it going to be like when I'm not able to make that phone call? When I reach for that phone, and I'm going have to take my hand back because she's not there?'

The idea began after a phone call with his mom. Mitch says he was in the middle of writing another book when he decided to start writing For One More Day.

Mitch albom's for one more day 2007