Today marks the fourteenth anniversary of the death of my husband Jerry. My memoir, SAD IS NOT BAD, poignantly records the experiences, emotions and evolving journey of grief during the challenging first year as revealed in the letters I wrote to him. My letters that were written regularly for two years and still continue occasionally to this day have helped me keep my loving relationship.

One of Morrie Schwartz’s many aphorisms in TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE is “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” And while the relationship obviously changes it does continue. Morrie shared his dying of ALS both through weekly conversations with Mitch Albom, a former student and Ted Koppel of “Nightline”. Morrie taught us how to die but more importantly this Brandeis sociology professor taught us how to live. This quote says it beautifully. “As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on - - in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”

I highly recommend you read or reread TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, a life altering book or view Ted Koppel’s interview of Morrie Schwartz on YouTube.

-Harriet