By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
The Needham Free Public Library hosted photographer Heather Pillar and writer/producer Rob Schwartz to discuss The Legacy of Morrie. Who is Morrie Schwartz? For those unfamiliar, Morrie Schwartz is the titular figure from the world famous memoir, “Tuesdays with Morrie,” by Mitch Albom.
Morrie was a professor of sociology at Brandeis University as well as an author. Morrie came into the limelight after the Boston Globe published an article written by Jack Thomas entitled, “Professor’s final course: his own death,” which highlighted the professor's both unusual and uplifting philosophies as he faced his own mortality. Morrie had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) which is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which affects nerve cells in both the brain and spinal cord. After his prognosis, he was only given twelve to eighteen months to live. This led to the professor being asked to appear on Nightline with Ted Koppel to discuss his mortality and the accompanying philosophies. His appearance on Nightline led Mitch Albom, a former student of Morrie’s, to reconnect with him. Thus, Mitch and Morrie met each Tuesday for fourteen weeks to discuss the larger questions of life, with Morrie giving his perspective from someone nearing the otherside. A year after Morrie passed onto the next life, Mitch published “Tuesdays with Morrie,” an international best seller and world famous book.
Heather Pillar, a photographer, recently published a book titled, “Memento Morrie,” which is a play on the Latin phrase, “Memento Mori,” which means, “remember that you must die.” This book showcases the photographs that she took throughout the end of Morrie’s life, paired with his aphorisms about living and dying. The photographs are split up into sections to showcase themes of building community, the importance of family, friends, and caregiving, self care, spirituality, and death and beyond.
Rob Schwartz, the youngest son of Morrie, spoke about “The Wisdom of Morrie,” written by his father prior to Morrie’s diagnosis with ALS. Morrie had written this book in the early 1990s after Brandeis had forced him to retire from his position as a full-time professor; Morrie still continued to teach, although this shift caused Morrie to become aware of his aging self. At this time period, Rob shared that his father felt the need to investigate why aging made him feel uncomfortable. Thus, Morrie went onto write this manuscript over the next couple of years with the desire to have this book help people while they age. The manuscript was completed in 1992 and Morrie sought to find a publisher, though he was unable to do so. This led Morrie to place the manuscript into his desk drawer to sit with for sometime. However, shortly thereafter, Morrie began to feel the effects of ALS and was then diagnosed, moving onto the final phase of his life.
A few years ago, years after Morrie had passed on, Rob shared: “I rediscovered the manuscript in my father’s desk drawer in his study… I had to edit it to get it into a place where I could publish it,” and so Rob’s work began. The contents in “Wisdom of Morrie,” are entirely the work and words of Morrie Schwartz; Rob wrote a foreword and an afterword, but merely edited the manuscript to prepare it for publication. It was important to Rob that his fathers voice still came through the manuscript, causing him to want to alter it as little as possible. While “Tuesdays with Morrie,” focuses on dying and what can be learned from that transitional period, “The Wisdom of Morrie,” teaches readers how to view aging as a positive, creative, connected, and uplifting experience.
At the end of the talk, Rob and Pillar opened up the floor for discussion, where audience members were able to ask questions about Morrie’s life, his work, his philosophies, his spiritual inclinations, as well as their own respective responses to experiencing this end of life journey with Morrie.
For more information about “Wisdom of Morrie,” please visit: wisdomofmorrie.com/. For more information about “Memento Morrie,” please visit: www.heatherpillar.com
