The Next Person You Meet in Heaven - Book Review

 Back in 2003, I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I recently read The Next Person You Meet in Heaven which I enjoyed. 

This is the sequel to that first book which focused on a man named Eddie who died saving a young girl named Annie when an amusement park ride broke. Although he felt his life was meaningless on earth, he learned from five people in heaven how much his - and every life - matters. 

In the sequel, Annie is whisked into her own journey to Heaven after her wedding day. She and her husband, who are involved in a hot air balloon crash, are taken to the hospital. She tried to keep him alive by donating an organ, but ended up dying. She wanted desperately to know if she saved her husband because of the transplant. 

The book alternates between chapters titled "Annie Makes a Mistake" which looks at her life retrospectively and because Annie felt that her whole life she'd been making mistakes. The other chapters are ones that carry the reader through her present-day life. 

The first person she meets is her doctor who treated her after the accident. He explained that "the five people you meet first are chosen for a reason. They affected you in some way on earth. Maybe you knew them. Maybe you didn't."

Annie questioned if she didn't know them, how could they affect her. The doctor explained that "our" time is lined to others' times. "We come from one. We return to one. That's how a connected universe makes sense."

The other thing the doctor explained when she said that she didn't picture heaven the way it was when she arrived was that "you get to pick your eternal setting." For the doctor, trains haunted him because of an accident he was in. In heaven there is "nothing to fear...so I chose to flip my human existence. Now I ride this train wherever I please."

The second "person" she met in Heaven was her dog, Cleo. However, Cleo presented herself as a woman because she "thought this form would be easier." She was there to teach Annie something and said that "each soul you meet in heaven does the same."

The lesson that Cleo was to teach Annie was focused on loneliness. Annie suffered from it, especially in her younger years. Cleo said that "loneliness itself does not exist. It has no form. It is merely a shadow that falls over us. And just as shadows die when light changes, that sad feeling can depart once we see the truth...[and that is] that the end of loneliness is when someone needs you. And the world is so full of need." 

Cleo's heaven was filled with grim-faced people, children on crutches, adults in wheelchairs, soldiers in dirt-stained uniforms, widowed women in veils....all in need of comfort in some way. There were tons of dogs who would run to the people with their tails wagging. They licked the people and the people would embrace the dogs and begin to smile. For Cleo, she wanted to feel the joy when people came home. Souls reuniting with something define.

Annie asked Cleo, just like she did the doctor, if Paulo (her husband) lived. Annie said, "I'm all right with dying as long as Paulo lived. Just tell me my death wasn't wasted." To which Cleo replied, "No act done of someone else is ever wasted."

This book had parts in it that reduced me to tears...just like the first book. One section was when Cleo changed forms back to being a dog and Annie was able to see her beloved dog again. "Annie's mind was flooded with memories...she felt a joy she had not known in years."

If that wasn't enough, the third person Annie meets in Heaven is her mom. This was another challenging chapter for me to read because I thought of my own parents and how much I miss them. The chapter with her mother said that "children begin by needing their parents. Over time, they reject them. Eventually, they become them." 

An important part of her time with her mother in Heaven was learning about the sacrifices that her mother made. When Annie was growing up, her mother kept a lot of secrets to keep Annie safe. As the author said, "All children keep secrets. All parents do the same. We mold the version we want others to believe, boosting the disguise and tucking away the truth." 

The other part was learning about what happened the day that she almost died, but was saved by Eddie. Because of the situation leading up to the accident, Annie's mother realized that when her daughter most needed her, she was with a man she didn't even care about. She became overly protective after the accident. Her mother said, "We don't realize who else we punish while we're punishing ourselves." 

The fourth person she met was Eddie - who saved her life when she was a little girl. She was able to learn his life history. They realized that both felt like they made too many mistakes in their lives. Eddie said, "I thought my whoel life was a mistake. Things kept happening to me, lousy things, until I finally gave up trying." 

When Eddie got to Heaven he learned that the job he thought was below him - working in an amusement park as a maintenance man - was actually exactly where he needed to be. Although Annie was sorry about being in the wrong place and causing his life, he said, "I needed to save you. It let me make up for the life I took. That's how salvation works. The wrongs we do open doors to do right." 

He also explained to Annie that he met five people when he arrived in Heaven and he was one of five for someone else...and that someone else was Annie. "You meet five people, then you're one of five for someone else. That's how heaven connects everybody."

Then it was time to meet the fifth person. When I read who it was, my heart sank. It was Paulo. 

"Loss is as old as life itself. But for all our evolution, we are yet to accept it." Annie realized that she didn't save Paulo's life and then reflected on the many losses she had experienced in her life. She felt like she failed again. And then...just as she was thinking that they would be together, she was headed back to Earth and Paulo was in Heaven to stay. 

The book concluded with what happened in Annie's life for a few years after returning...including having a child. Annie knew that she would comfort her daughter with the knowledge that "whatever her fears or losses, heaven held the answers to all her earthly questions, beginning with five people who were waiting for her, as they wait for us all, under the eyes of God and in the true meaning of that most precious word. Home."