The Five People You Meet In Heaven

by Mitch Albom

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New York: Hyperion 2003. 196pp $19.95

This one of the most engaging, spiritual books I have read. It is written in the simplest of styles and formats, the story of Eddie, a maintenance man at a carnival who dies and transitions to the next plane of existence. Here, he meets five people who interacted with him significantly at various stages of his life – some whom he hadn’t ever realized had had such important interactions with him. The insights he gains from these five people are lessons for all of us, such as:

That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind. (p. 48)

Strangers… are just family you have yet to come to know. (p. 49)

No life is a waste… The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone. (p. 50)

Eddie had had a particularly bitter relationship with his father. As Albom’s tale unfolds, Eddie comes to understand his father better.

All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair. (p. 104)

This book is warmly recommended – suitable as a gift for opening into spiritual awareness.

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