Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Albom briefly explains his experiences revisiting his favorite university professor, Morrie, after 16 years of not keeping in touch with him; these experiences later became his bestselling memoir Tuesdays with Morrie. Albom found out through a television program that Morrie had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and was dying, so he decided to go see him. This turned into a regular Tuesday visit during which Morrie shared wisdom with Albom, changing him for the better. Albom reflects that he learned a great deal from the experience, and he wonders momentarily if it was God’s way of preparing him for what was to come with Chika. However, he rejects this idea because Morrie was elderly and content in the life he had lived, while Chika had yet to live one at all.

Chika’s spirit plays a favorite game with Albom called “Finding Chika,” in which Chika hides and Albom pretends she is lost until she pops out again. Albom looks around the room and finds Chika hiding under a blanket. Then she sits on his office chair, urging him to write the next lesson, “Time Changes.”