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I happened to read my friend's blog about this book and so I got inspired to read it again. I read this book about 2 years ago. I know that this book is good and it's really worth re-reading.
The story is about an 83 year old man named "Eddie" who was unsatisfied in his life. He was a war veteran and was working as a maintenance man at an amusement park at the time of his death. The story begins at the end, with Eddie dying, trying to save a little girl from the falling ride.
"All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time".
When Eddie died, there were five people who were waiting for him in heaven.
"There are five people you meet in heaven. Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth."
"This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for."
Each of the five people that Eddie meets in heaven is there to teach him a lesson to help him understand and appreciate his life. Each of them had crossed Eddie's path before they died. Some of them he knows well and some he has never met, and they all wait for him in some place familiar to his past.
"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."
If I had the choice of five people I could meet up again in heaven and spend time with, my five choices would be:
1. My mother who died of cancer 20 years ago. She died when my first born was less than a year old. She didn't get the chance to see my 2 beautiful girls grow up.
2. My brother who died in 2009. He was found dead in his room. I cried a lot when I found out about his death. I was so guilty because I haven't had the chance to show him how much I care and how much I love him. I was able to talk to him on the phone in Oct. 2009, and then he died Nov. 2009.
3. Inang Aning - My grandmother (my father's inang) who took care of us when we were small kids. My inang lived longer than my mother. She died of old age. She got the chance to see my 2 girls that's why my girls can still remember her.
4. Lalet (my cousin's daughter). She died of ovarian cancer at a young age of 20, gone too soon. She would stay in our house during her school break to help us in household chores. She was like a sister to me.
5. My bestfriend Marilou. She died at the age of 37. She left for US when she got married. We would see each other in the province every time she had the chance to go back to Philippines. She was the only one whom I could share all my secrets with. It was really sad she left behind her 2 young sons at a young age.
