The Five People You Meet In Heaven Chapter Summary

 The Five People You Meet in Heaven

-          The most successful US hardcover first adult novel ever

-          Published in September 2003

-          Sold over ten million copies in 38 territories and 35 languages

-          Turned into a television movie for ABC starring: Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Imperioli and Jeff Daniels; Directed by: Lloyd Kramer

-          Critically acclaimed and the most watched TV movie of the year with 18.7 million viewers

-          Inspired by Albom’s real life uncle: Eddie Beitchman, who, like the character served during the World War II in the Philippines and died when he was 83

-          Eddie told Albom (as a child) about a time he was rushed to surgery and had a near-death experience – his soul floating above the bed. There Eddie said, he saw all his dead relatives waiting for him at the edge of the bed. Albom said that image of people waiting when you die inspire his concept of The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Introduction:

          The book is a mixture of the protagonist’s journey of the past (through flashbacks) and the present (in heaven). In every chapter are mini chapter-like segments and Eddie’s birthdays.

Chapter 1: The End

          The book started with introducing Eddie (the protagonist) and explained how it started. The author added: “But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.  The story started with Eddie’s last hour in an amusement park by a great gray ocean – Ruby Pier. Eddie, an old working man as what he is described to be in the time of his death; works as maintenance man – keeping the rides safe. Regular costumers knew Eddie seeing him every summer. In his last 50 minutes, Eddie took his last walk along Ruby Pier. It was his 83^rd birthday.

 After 10 minutes, Eddie rode the “Ghost Coaster” – as what they call this one, as part of his routine in checking the safety of the rides. 

Flashback:

          Eddie grew up in the same pier, he was the tough one – protected his older brother Joe from his enemies sending them to the hospital.

          After riding with the children, Eddie went to the maintenance shop where his young co-worker Dominguez was. Eddie, at some point of his life wanted to leave and venture another life away from the pier but still ended up there as the maintenance man or “the ride man at Ruby Pier” as the kids sometimes call him.

26 minutes to live, he saw a bunch of teenagers leaning over the railing of the bumper cars and sent them away whacking the railing so hard with his cane almost snapping it into two. Eddie was a brave soldier and he even won a medal (in a flashback).

Eddie in his 19 minutes left on earth, sat on an aluminum bench on his regular spot in the pier where he first met Marguerite on a warm September night after a thunderstorm (one true-love snapshot).

          A short story was inserted about a young man named Nicky who went to the Ruby Pier with three of his friends. He had just started driving and still not comfortable with carrying the key chain so he removed it and put the key in his jacket pocket and tied the jacket in his waist. They rode the fastest rides in the pier and didn’t notice the key was gone until they were in the car lot.

          14 minutes until his death was spent reminiscing his past with Marguerite. Two minutes after, a young girl interrupted him and asked him a favor. Then he got back to reminiscing then suddenly a fat woman was screaming because something went wrong with one of the carts of the free fall. Only Eddie knows how the thing works and with expertise, found out that the pulley was wedged by a small object have fallen through the opening – a car key. In an attempt to rescue the passengers of the ride, a mistake ended his life trying to save a little girl.

Today Is Eddie’s Birthday:

          In this segment, Eddie was born. It was in year 1920’s. This part was focused on the first view of Eddie’s father to his son.

Chapter 2: The Journey

          The chapter started with stories about afterlife and having second chances but in Eddie’s case, he won’t have one.  He was floating and can barely feel the pain he felt when he died. Strange things happened and the only thing that is in his mind is the wonder of how the worry and the pain vanished.

Today is Eddie’s birthday:

          It was Eddie’s fifth birthday in a Sunday afternoon at Ruby Pier. His father is in the card game as usual. In this segment Eddie met Mickey Shea, an Irish and one of Eddie’s father’s co-workers. Eddie’s mother was also there.

Chapter 3: The Arrival

          Eddie woke up in a teacup and in his great disbelief saw Ruby Pier in his childhood, 75 years ago. Eddie’s strength also came back and was able to run again after 60 years. He ran and jumped like a child. The author added: “But the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.

          Suddenly he heard a tiny voice, as if coming through a megaphone. He was standing in an empty ticket house and recalled the freak house that was shut down 50 years when television became popular. He heard voices from the freak house where he had encountered some odd people. Eddie, as a child, felt sorry for them. Eddie entered the darkened hall and as the barker’s voice vanished, there he stepped back in disbelief of what he saw sitting in a chair, alone on the stage whom he would have forgotten if not for his blue skin. The blue man greeted Eddie and told him that he had been waiting for him.

Chapter 4: The First Person Eddie Meets in Heaven

          The blue man rose from his chair telling him not to be afraid. The blue man explained to him the things he had experienced and reason why he is there in the first place. Ruby Pier is Eddie’s heaven. He explained that there are five people he will meet in heaven. He added that there are people he meets in his life for a reason and heaven is there for understanding his life on earth. He told Eddie that this was the greatest gift God can give him – to understand what happened in his life – to have it explained – the peace he had been searching for.

 The blue man is Eddie’s first person and he is there to tell him his story which will become part of his. Eddie pushed himself to speak and was able to ask who killed him and the blue man answered – “you did”.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday:

It was Eddie’s 7^th birthday and his gift is a new baseball. It was the time when Eddie encountered the freaks from the freak show.

Eddie denied that he killed him. The blue man tried to put him at ease and started introducing himself. The blue man's name is Joseph Corvelzchik, a son of a tailor in a small Polish village. The blue man continued by talking about his life, how hard it was and how did his skin turned into blue.

 A story was viewed into two different angles:

It was Sunday morning of July in the late 1920's. Eddie, with his friends were playing with his baseball he got almost a year ago. Upon chasing the ball, he runs in front of an automobile, a Ford Model A. The car was able to miss him and he ran back to his friends.

In another angle, Joseph explained how Eddie became responsible (or one of the) of his death.

Today is Eddie's birthday:

It was Eddie's 8th birthday. In his birthday is a funeral of one of the workers in the pier. It may be Joseph's.

Chapter 5: The First Lesson

Joseph explained that lives are connected. All lives intersect. There are no random things that just happened that there is balance to it. Eddie still reluctant to what he had discovered asked him what good Joseph's death gave and he answered that Eddie's life was spared. He added that "Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know".

Joseph pulled Eddie close then suddenly he felt all the feelings that the blue man felt in his life.

Eddie asked him if he was able to save the girl's life and the blue man did not answer. Then Eddie hastily concluded that his life was a waste but Joseph told him that no life is a waste and the only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone. Then the blue man's skin turned into the loveliest shade of caramel - smooth and unblemished then he slowly disappeared.

Sunday, 3pm: Eddie’s dead and the news spread across the beach.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday

          It is Eddie’s 17^th birthday. His cousins from Romania came over and it was also the time when Joe spilled out the news of Eddie admiring a girl.

Chapter 6: The Second Person Eddie Meets in Heaven

          Eddie arrived into a place surrounded by fallen trees. He experienced some changes in his body. It is different from how it was earlier. Suddenly there were bomb blasts and explosions that he heard so he instinctively fell to the ground and crawled along in the mud until he felt something brushed against something solid – a rifle dug into the ground with a helmet sitting atop to it and a set of dog tags hanging from the grip. One of the dog tag’s names was his.

Flashback:

          Like any other young man, Eddie also enlisted to participate in the war but before enlisting, Eddie wanted to be an engineer. War was Eddie’s call to manhood.

          In Eddie’s final nights, he was practicing his aim with a small arcade riffle. While he was practicing, Mickey Shea came and gave an advice about fighting in war. A few days later Eddie left for the war.

          The second person was revealed in the story; it was the Captain, Eddie’s commanding officer whom he fought in the Philippines with.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday:

          This is the birthday before Eddie goes to war. In here Marguerite came and was worried about his journey to the war. In their conversation he revealed that he was the one who shot his leg to save his life. Eddie was so angry and cannot believe that it was the captain of all people who shot him led him to lose his “life”. In almost the end of their journey, a small click sounded beneath his right foot and the land mine exploded and split him into pieces.

Chapter 7: The Second Lesson

          The captain told him of what is heaven all about. It is about making sense of your yesterdays. The captain’s message was all about sacrifice.

Chapter 8: The Third Person Eddie Meets in Heaven

          Eddie was in a place that is snowing near a boxcar-shaped building with a stainless exterior and a red barrel roof. Inside it was his father.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday:

          It was the birthday spent by Eddie after the war. He was in the hospital where his family and Mickey Shea and Marguerite surprised him.

          In continuation, Eddie’s anger to his father came flowing back again. The third person he met in heaven was a waitress in the Seahorse Grille – the place where he used to have breakfast. She got married and his husband set up a business using her name as the name of the pier business. The third person was Ruby.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday:

          It is Eddie’s 33^rd birthday. In his birthday he woke up very early in the morning brought by nightmares that he had about the war. By the end of this segment, he received a phone call. Something happened to his father.

          Ruby was there to tell him how his father died. But before that, the story flashed back into the time his father died.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday

          It was his 37^th birthday. It was spend on a busy summer with his friend Noel where they have made mention of an incident in a Gandola ride.

Chapter 9: The Third Lesson

          The third lesson was about loyalty – a lesson he got from his father knowing the truth. His father takes friendships seriously. Eddie expressed how he hated his father, that he was hell to him and a lot worse when he was older.  Ruby added that anger is a poison – it eats you inside; it is a curved blade. Ruby also encouraged Eddie to forgive – forgive his father and he was able to.

Chapter 10: The Fourth Person Eddie Meets in Heaven

          Eddie is in a small room. He goes out of a door and experiences many wedding celebrations from around the world. At the last one, he sees a beautiful young woman. It’s Marguerite. She is his fourth person. Eddie cries and tells her how much he has missed her.

Today is Eddie’s Birthday:

          It was Eddie’s 38^th birthday. Joe became successful later on with life and earns 3 times Eddie’s salary. He congratulated Eddie’s promotion – head of maintenance – their father’s old position but he was not grateful. Marguerite offered a surprise to Eddie with some children – because she likes children although, unfortunately cannot have one.

          Eddie and Marguerite’s wedding took place Christmas Eve on the second floor of a dimly lit Chinese restaurant called Sammy Hong’s.  Eddie asked Marguerite questions about what she experienced in heaven. He is wondering if it was all the same for the both of them. Eddie can’t still believe that he is now talking to his wife and was reluctant to accept it. Eddie cries and tells her how much he has missed her. Time goes back to Eddie’s thirty-ninth birthday. He was gambling at the races with a friend. Marguerite was driving there to persuade him to go home but she had an accident and ended up in hospital. They had been trying to adopt a child but now that Marguerite was so ill it was impossible. Eddie felt guilty and their relationship wasn’t good for a while, but eventually their love returned. Sadly, Marguerite got a brain tumor when she was forty-seven and died, and Eddie was heartbroken. Eddie and Marguerite spend time together in heaven and she teaches him his fourth lesson. She explains that when she died she continued to love him as he did her. She explains that lost love is still love. Life has to end but love doesn’t. They dance and Marguerite disappears.

Chapter 11: The Fourth Lesson

          The fourth lesson was about love which Eddie felt for Marguerite. But this is love in general. Love, even if life may end but love doesn’t.

Chapter 12: The Fifth Person Eddie Meets in Heaven and

Chapter 13: The Last Lesson

          Eddie can only see white and he misses his wife. Then he hears a screaming noise and sees a river full of children playing. One small beautiful girl calls to him and a wind pushes him to her. Her name is Tala and she is his last person. She tells him that he had burnt her when she was hiding from the soldiers and Eddie realizes that she is the figure he saw in the burning building during the war. He cries and asks for her forgiveness. She gives him a stone and asks him to wash her with it. Eddie now sees how her skin and body are completely burnt and he follows her to the river. As he rubs the stone over her body, the burnt skin drops off and she is beautiful again. She now asks him why he had been sad when he was on Earth and he explains that he had felt his life was a waste. She explains that in fact his life had a clear purpose. He was meant to be at Ruby Park to look after the small children. This is his final lesson. Tala also explains that he had pushed the young girl out of the way of the falling car before he died and saved her life. Tala had then led him safely into heaven. The hands that Eddie had felt in his at the moment of his death had been hers. Eddie now passes through the many colors of heaven which are the emotions of his life and ends up in his own heaven with his wife Marguerite. He will be one of the people there waiting in heaven for the little girl whose life he saved after she has grown up and died and needs to learn five lessons that explain her life on Earth.     

The book is really good. The experience would still be better if you will be able to read the book. I salute to the one and only Mitch Albom! He brings you into another perspective of life.