The Next Person You Meet In Heaven

 The author of this book is Mitch Albom. This book is about the mistakes we think we make, and how they are part of what connects us to the human core. All endings are also the beginnings, we just don't know it at the time. One life touches another and that life touches the next.

Annie who had survived from the accident at Ruby Pier in the earlier book "The Five People You Meet In Heaven", now was a grown up women who got marred, but was involved in another hot air balloon crash with her husband, Paulo. She arrived in heaven when undergoing an operation in the hospital. She met 5 people in heaven, each teaching her a lesson.

1st person met in heaven:  Sameer, the doctor that operates on her when she was a child and had save her life.

1st lesson: What killed a person is what led someone to find a cure for the future. Sometimes, we hear people lament that if their love loves had been born 50 years later, they might have survived what killed them. When we build, we build on the shoulders of those who came before us. And when we fall apart, those who came before us help put us back together. We are part of each other. Did the world begin with your birth? The answer is no. Yet, humans make so much of "our " time on earth, we measure it, we compare it, we put it on our tombstones. We forget that our times are linked with others' times. We come from one, we return to one. That's how a connected universe makes sense.

2nd person met in heaven: Annie's pet dog named Cleo who changed to an old woman in heaven

2nd lesson: The end of loneliness is when someone needs you and the world is so full of needs. There is no need to suffer from loneliness, show empathy and help others. When Annie was a little girl, her empathy led her to adopt poor Cleo who was injured from the rescue centre, which gave Cleo a home and happiness, in return, Annie was no longer lonely.

3rd person met in heaven: Annie's mum, Lorraine

3rd lesson: Learn about Grace. We should learn to forgive and move on. We embrace our scars more than our healing. We can recall the exact day we got hurt, but seldom remember the days the wound was gone. Secrets, we think we are keeping them, we are controlling things, but all the while, they are controlling us.

4th person met in heaven: Eddie, the maintenance man at Ruby Pier, who saved young Annie

4th lesson: You only have peace when you make it with yourself. People may think that he/she was doing nothing because he/she was a nobody. In fact, there is no such thing as a no body. And there are no mistakes. Annie thought she had made a mistake by running the wrong way at Ruby Pier that resulted in Eddie having to save her and in the course, sacrificed his life. Eddie explained that it was no mistake of her because he needed to save her to make up for the life he took away from Tala during war time. Never think that your whole life was a mistake, that lousy things kept happening to you and you gave up trying. Do not feel bad about yourself. (like Annie feel bad about Eddie died because of saving her). Eddie explained that's how salvation works. The wrongs we do open doors to do right. By causing Tala's death, Eddie has been a working at Ruby Pier, keeping the children safe all his life, so that the children can grow up and have children of their own.

5th person met in heaven: Paulo, Annie's newly wed husband

5th lesson: Loss is as old as life itself. But for all our evolution, we are yet to accept it. Never frowned and think about losing things again. We lose something everyday. Sometimes its as tiny as your breath you just expelled, sometimes its so big you think you won't survive it. Our life will be fuller when we have people we love and the losses we had.