by Mitch Albom | Mar 1, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The beating began when he was 7 years old. His father, a drunk, would whack him with the back of his hand. He would scream insults. “You’re no good!””You’re stupid!” He would hit the boy’s sisters, as well. Worst of all, he would hit their mother, his wife, over and over, night after night. He would split her lip. He would smack her forehead until she bled. She never spoke of it. And so the boy never spoke of it. And the shame began to bubble inside him.
by Mitch Albom | Dec 24, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
The man who lost his toes to frostbite lays down on a mattress, and the man who lost his teeth to street fights checks the final name off his clipboard. The room quiets and the lights dim and Henry Covington, the pastor, who turned this church gym into a floor of hope...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 24, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
The man who lost his toes to frostbite lays down on a mattress, and the man who lost his teeth to street fights checks the final name off his clipboard. The room quiets and the lights dim and Henry Covington, the pastor, who turned this church gym into a floor of hope...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 23, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
Second of three partsOliver!””Yo.”The man in the ski cap – who had his frostbitten toes amputated a few years ago – steps out and waves a hand, then walks to a vinyl mattress with a gray wool blanket. This will be his bed for the night, a...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 23, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
Second of three partsFor Part 1, go to freep.com/sportsOliver!””Yo.”The man in the ski cap – who had his frostbitten toes amputated a few years ago – steps out and waves a hand, then walks to a vinyl mattress with a gray wool blanket....
by Mitch Albom | Dec 23, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
Second of three partsOliver!””Yo.”The man in the ski cap – who had his frostbitten toes amputated a few years ago – steps out and waves a hand, then walks to a vinyl mattress with a gray wool blanket. This will be his bed for the...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 21, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
First of three partsThe men keep their coats on. It is cold inside this church. They sit at tables, hungry for food, and listen as a woman tries to rouse them with inspiration. “I AM
” she yells.”I AM
” they yell back.The lighting is dim....
by Mitch Albom | Dec 21, 2008 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
First of three parts
The men keep their coats on. It is cold inside this church. They sit at tables, hungry for food, and listen as a woman tries to rouse them with inspiration.
"I AM" she yells.
"I AM
" they yell back.
The lighting is dim. Some men hold their chins in their hands.
"SOMEBODY!" she yells.
"SOMEBODY!" they yell back.
by Mitch Albom | Nov 21, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
Am I my brother’s keeper? Well, yes, out there on the pitcher’s mound, calming Matthew down, getting him to throw strikes, Mark Lestan was, for all those years, from Little League to senior high, his brother’s keeper.
by Mitch Albom | Nov 21, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
His hands are bleeding. So are his knees. He picks up the rope and pulls it taut. He has beaten four others and now, across the rope, stands the last of them, a teammate, a younger teammate, no less, a kid he had taught to lift weights, a kid he had always been stronger than. Heck, he had been stronger than all of them — but that was last fall, before it all happened. Before the year from hell.
