| CHAPTER TWELVE – The Professor. |
| 57 |
73 |
Morrie was just eight years old when his mother died. Why was he forced to read the telegram from the hospital, which broke the news, to his father? |
Morrie’s father was a Russian immigrant who came to America to escape the Russian Army. As a consequence he could not read English. Morrie was therefore forced to read the notice, sent from the hospital, out loud to his father. |
| 58 |
74 |
Morrie’s family was very poor when he was growing up. His mother ran a candy store and the family lived behind it. After his mother’s death, how did Morrie and his younger brother try to make a little money? |
After their mother’s death, Morrie and his younger brother would make a nickel by washing their neighbour’s porch steps. |
| 59 |
75 |
Soon after their mother’s death, Morrie and his younger brother were sent to stay in a large cabin in the woods shared by several families. During this stay, Morrie’s brother was diagnosed with a very serious disease. What was this? |
David, Morrie’s younger brother, was diagnosed with polio during their stay in the large cabin in the woods. |
| 60 |
75-76 |
Morrie split his time between visiting a synagogue, where he prayed for his brother, and standing at the bottom of the subway steps, where the young boy tried his best to sell magazines enabling him to buy food for his family. His father was a gloomy man, but the following year a ‘saving embrace’ came into Morrie’s life. What was this? |
The ‘saving embrace’ which entered Morrie’s life the following year was his new step mother, Eva. The Romanian immigrant was a warm and kind woman who brought love into the young boy’s life. |
| 61 |
77 |
What does Morrie put his love of education down to? |
Morrie puts his love of education down to his stepmother, Eva, who saw it as the only way out of poverty. Consequentially she would accept nothing less than academic excellence from him. |
| 62 |
78 |
When he was a teenager, Morrie was taken by his father to the fur factory where he worked with the intention of getting the young man a job. Despite his father’s hopes, however, there was not a job available. When he left the factory, what vow did the young man make and why? |
When Morrie left the fur factory he vowed to never do any work which exploited another human being nor would be ‘make money off the sweat of another’. Morrie decided to make this vow after experiencing the poor working conditions in the factory and the aggressive and intimidating attitude of the floor manager who shouted at his employees. |
