Tuesdays with Morrie is a realistic story about a sports writer, Mitch Albom, (who is also the author of the book), who takes care of his old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, after learning of his illness and soon the relationship between them is rekindled after years of separation. The setting of the story is Morrie's house in West Newton, Massachusetts. The two main characters in the book are Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz. Mitch Albom received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he met and studied with his beloved professor, Morrie Schwartz. In 1982, Albom received a Master's degree from Columbia University in New York. After failing as an amateur boxer and nightclub musician, Albom began his career as a sports journalist, writing articles for newspapers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Detroit Free Press where he worked from 1985 until his reunion with Morrie in 1995. He also his nationally syndicated radio show, Monday Sports Albom. In 1995, Albom began collecting notes for his book, Tuesdays With Morrie, which documents his and Morrie's discussions about the meaning of life that they hold every Tuesday of every week at Morrie's house. Morrie Schwartz, however, began teaching sociology in 1959 at Brandeis. It was only in 1995, when he was dying of ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, that Morrie ended his career as a professor. A fatal neuromuscular disease, ALS is characterized by progressive muscle debilitation that ultimately causes paralysis. ALS is commonly known as Lou Gherig's disease, named after the famous baseball player who died of the disease in 1941 at the age of forty. Mitch Albom remembers his graduation from Brandeis University in the spring of 1979. After earning his diploma, Mitch approaches his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz, and gives him a monogrammed briefcase. He promises Morrie, who is crying, that he will stay in touch, even if he doesn't keep his promise. Years after Mitch's graduation from Brandeis, Morrie is forced to give up dance, his favorite hobby, because he has been diagnosed with ALS and his wife, Charlotte, takes care of him, even though, at her insistence, he maintains his work as a professor at MITSici years. After graduating from Brandeis, Mitch feels frustrated with the life he's chosen to live. He abandons his failing career as a musician to become a well-paid reporter for a Detroit newspaper.