Eddie thought he was a loser. He more or less inherited his job from his dad who was troubled and abusive towards his family. When reviewing his life, in order to learn the secret of heaven, five people have waited for him to help him understand his life and its meaning.
There are of course flash backs and, some quite painful that cause Eddie to experience a great deal of heartache. The first person he meets was a man who worked in the carnival. He had blue skin. Eddie was the cause of his death, even though he never knew about it until he met the blue man. It was an accident, Eddie ran out in front of the man’s car when a young child and caused him to have an accident and then he died of a heart attack. The blue man said that fairness has nothing to do with death…..if that where true, no good people would die while young. Yet Eddie asked him why he had to die. He said “I died so that you could live”.
He meets his captain from the Second World War, who was killed when Eddie and some other men were escaping from prison camp. While escaping Eddie took a flame thrower and burned down the camp. In the last building after he set in on fire, Eddie thought he saw someone inside and wanted to save whoever the person was but could not. He was shot in the leg, which caused him pain all of his life. For the next 40 years of his life Eddie had nightmares about the event. Perhaps because he knew on some level that there was a child in the building whom he burned alive in his revenge on the prison camp.
He also met with his father, who was kept in a save place. He was totally self absorbed, yet Eddie was able to forgive him with the aid of a woman whose husband had built Ruby Pier. The man who built the amusement park did it all for love of his wife Ruby. So she spent some of her heaven helping anyone who was hurt in anyway by being at the park.
He met his wife; her waiting place was an area for weddings. They talked about their life and love. She told Eddie that she was happy because she knew “the secret of heaven”. That was why the five people were for, to teach him that. When he told his wife that he wanted to stay with her and not move on, she disappeared and he fell into despair and cried out to God “not again!”
The last person he saw was a young girl of six, who was killed by him. When she told him that ‘You burned me”, she showed him her scars. He then remembered and understood his dreams, that they where telling him what he already knew but repressed, that he did indeed kill the child. The child asked him to wash her. She gave him a stone and they went into the water and when he cleaned her, her scars were healed and she was whole. During their conversation, Eddied shared with the girl that his life was wasted, that he did not do anything. She said no you kept the children safe while there, that was where you belonged. She told him that it was her who took his hands when he died and brought him to heaven. She kept him safe and she then took him to meet everyone.
When he came back to Ruby Pier it was filled with people. The people whom he kept safe while working day in and day out. He did care for the safety of the people who went there, especially the children. He was also loved by those who knew him, but he was not able to embrace it while alive. He then reunited with his wife.
The point of the book is to let us know that all lives are important, and that we do have a profound effect on others. These affects both the good and even evil, have to be faced before healing can come, yet in the end, all lives are one, yet unique.
Our lives are I believe about healing others. That the most mundane meetings connect us in ways that we do not yet understand, yet nonetheless our lives are journeys into learning to love, forgive and in the end to love ourselves as well. Eddie did not love himself in life, perhaps he was a lot like his dad. Yet he did care for the people, who came to the Pier, took care of them, and in the end he died to save a little girl. In the war, when he saw the burning building he was prepared to go into the fire to seek out whom ever it was. That showed a loving heart, even if hidden from Eddie’s eyes. Christ lived in him.
When Eddie learned about what he did to the girl, or that it was brought to his conscious mind from his unconscious. He said something: God forgive me, I did not know what I was doing”. Christ on the cross prayed: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” Perhaps in the life review it is our hearts that have to be broken open in order to let love in.
When I experience a deep powerful love, it scares me, for I feel that if it gets to be any greater, that my heart will explode. Could that be one reason that seeking God is not central to our lives? We seek a love that is tame, not infinite and to our mind dangerous….yet in fact is it the healing balm that we actually desire but repress?
The book by Mitch Albom, titled, “The five people you meet in heaven” is an easy read, a good story, but it also has a lot to teach about life and its significance. The main character is a man named “Eddie” who was a maintenance man for ‘Ruby Pier’, an amusement park. The book starts off with his death and then goes on to review his life. In order to do that he has to meet five people.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
