5 People

I've just finished reading 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom - a book that left me with golf ball eyes and a pain in my heart, but also a feeling of hope and wonder. If you spot it on the shelves at Oxfam next time you're in town, grab it... it's a wonderful book.

It starts with the death of Eddie, an old war veteran and amusement park maintenance man who dies on his 83rd birthday while trying to save a little girl from a falling fairground cart. Eddie had once nurtured plans for studying engineering and making something of himself, however the scars left by an alchoholic father and the trauma of war meant he never left Ruby Pier, and considered himself a failure in life. In heaven he meets a series of people who show him that nothing in life is random, and all lives are connected - each of the 5 people he meets had their life impacted both in good ways and bad, and they, in turn, impacted upon Eddie's life. Throughout the book Eddie continues to ask whether he managed to save the little girl...

Even without having lost people in my life, I feel I would have been deeply moved by this little book, because it's just a beautiful story, wonderfully written, and because Eddie is human and real, and you can't help but feel his pain. However, having been bereaved myself, and knowing the bewilderment you feel, and the ever aching why why why.... I feel comforted by the message that while life has to end, love doesn't... and that I may get my answers one day, in heaven.