“All ending are beginnings. We just don't know it at the
time..." I’ve just got this from an amazing novel, “The Five People You
Meet in Heaven”, written by Mitch Albom. Got confused? Okay, this quote
generally tells us that all beginnings are considered to start from different
endings. How? Well, for example, when a day ends, a new day begins, but in this
novel, the quote tells us about the new kind life begins, after a life ends
mortally from earth. But before you begin your eternal life in Heaven, you’ll
get to encounter five people that will satisfy you that your life on earth is
worth-living for. So let’s get fascinated to the novel from the ending.
This is a story about a man named Eddie. Eddie is a
former veteran soldier who considers himself stuck in miserable life of
maintaining the rides at an Ruby Pier amusement park, which really meant
keeping people safe. His days are dull routing of work, loneliness, and regret.
Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying
to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where
he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your
earthly life is explained to you by five people. The first person he met is the
Blue Man from the freak show on the Pier, who died when Eddie was eight years
old. One by one, Eddie’s five people illuminated the unseen connections of his
earthly life. In Heaven, the man tells Eddie his life story and the lesson
Eddie is to learn from this first person is that there are no random acts. All
lives are interconnected, and fairness does not govern life or death. The
second person Eddie met is his captain from the war. Four of his men, including
Eddie, were captured with him in the Philippines. The captain was killed by a
landmine as they were escaping. He learned from this second encounter in Heaven
that no one dies for nothing and that when you sacrifice something precious,
such as a leg, you always gain something. He just doesn’t know yet what he has
gained. The third person Eddie met is a woman named Ruby, for whom Ruby Pier
was named long before Eddie’s time. The lesson he learned from this encounter
is taught by Ruby. She told him that anger is self-destructive and that he must
forgive. The fourth person Eddie met is his wife, Marguerite. Their
relationship was a rewarding and fulfilling one. They had a happy reunion in Heaven,
organized against the backdrop of several wedding from different countries. The
lesson that he learned from his fourth encounter is that lost love is still
love. Although life has to end, love doesn’t. The fifth person Eddie met is a
little girl, named Tala, whom he tried to rescue in the burning tent in the Philippines
in the war. She told him that he had saved the little girl from the falling
cart and that as he died; the hands he felt in his were her own, Tala’s. She
was bringing him to Heaven to keep him safe, she told him. At last, Eddie feels
peace. Eddie is then transported back to Marguerite to spend eternity with her
at home in Heaven.
These people may have been loved ones or distant
strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever. As the story builds to
its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown
last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure. The
answer which comes from the most unlikely sources is as inspirational as a
glimpse of heaven itself. In “The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you’ve ever
thought about the afterlife and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a
timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction
will treasure 196 pages of this novel.
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