56 pages • 1 hour read
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
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Themes
Interwoven Human Connections
One of the main lessons that Annie learns during her time in heaven is the extent to which all people are connected. Every event and choice in Annie’s life affected people beyond herself, and Annie is unaware of the full extent of this fact until she meets her five people. She finds out that “no story sits by itself” and that people’s lives “connect like threads on a loom, interwoven in ways [they] never realize” (12), which means that small decisions often lead to major consequences that can ripple out for decades and in unpredictable ways. Examples of this include Annie’s decision to help Tolbert with his flat tire, which affected her choice to go for a hot air balloon ride; Paulo’s decision to talk to Annie in the playground, which eventually led to their marriage; and Lorraine’s decision to leave Annie alone at Ruby Pier, which meant she wasn’t around to stop Annie from going under the falling ride. Every minor event in Annie’s life and in the lives of the people she meets connects with and affects the next: “One change blows in another” (19). This realization helps Annie gain perspective on the tragedies in her own life, as she is able to look beyond herself and see the broader good that resulted in the bad things that happened to her. It also allows her to forgive herself and let go of the guilt she has carried since childhood.
Annie learns a lesson about connection from each person she meets in heaven. Cleo teaches Annie how loneliness spawns connection, Lorraine teaches Annie that their connection is eternal, and Sameer teaches Annie that her life is just a small link in a much longer chain, pointing out that life and death do not begin with a single person. Although Annie’s accident felt tragic for her, it became a reason for Sameer to attempt a new surgical method, which went on to save many more people. It allowed her to empathize with and adopt Cleo, which ended their mutual isolation. It also prompted Lorraine to make major life changes for her daughter’s sake. People’s connections, and the choices that they make on Earth, impact who they meet in Albom’s heaven. Heaven therefore acts as a bridge between people and a source of understanding and empathy: “You meet five people, then you’re one of five for someone else. That’s how heaven connects everybody” (181). Notably, both Annie and Eddie, in The Five People You Meet in Heaven, encounter people they have never met before on their journeys through the afterlife, which allows them to visualize the true extent of interwoven connections throughout humanity.
Some of Annie’s relationships were born of pain, while others caused her suffering. Annie resented her mother through much of her life, and she entered an unhappy marriage shortly before losing her baby. Until she dies, Annie views these choices negatively, thinking of them as “mistakes” or otherwise painful elements of her generally unsuccessful life. When Annie meets Paulo in heaven, however, he stresses that all connections are meaningful, tying this theme to The Purpose of People, Suffering, and Life. He demonstrates this idea using two pipe cleaner hearts. The first is simple and small, and the second is large, intricate, and messy. The second heart represents the heart that develops in people over time, and despite its chaos, it is the heart that holds meaning because of all the connections that were formed in one’s life.
The Purpose of People, Suffering, and Life
One of the primary lessons that Annie learns in the afterlife, and one of the central ideas of the novel, is the assertion of a purpose behind everyone and everything. This aligns with the Christian idea that God—or in the novel’s case, specifically heaven—ensures that all events lead to others, creating a chain that stretches across humanity. This ties in with the theme of Interwoven Human Connections, and it grants Annie the perspective to step back and consider the events of her life more objectively.
Annie spends her life believing that everything she did was a mistake, and that the tragic events that happened in her life led to nothing but more tragedy and suffering: “I ruin everything. Even the good things” (168). She not only blames herself for these happenings, regardless of how illogical it is to do so, but she also views them as meaningless periods of pain and suffering. In the afterlife, however, Annie learns that every choice—every “mistake”—has a much larger impact than the person making it knows. Annie learns that Sameer used a new technique to reattach her hand, which he then went on to use on many more patients. Beyond that, Sameer became a surgeon because of his own childhood injury, which, like Annie, was fixed with a novel surgical technique. This teaches Annie that her accident was not just a tragic childhood event—it was the catalyst that allowed many others to receive advanced treatment.
With Cleo and Lorraine, Annie learns the purpose of her loneliness and her pain. Cleo reminds Annie that it was because she was injured and isolated that she felt drawn to Cleo, whose situation mirrored her own. While Annie viewed this period of her life as stiflingly lonely, Cleo helps her realize that her loneliness allowed her to save another innocent creature, and that the two of them needed each other in order to heal. After Annie admits to her “failure” as a mother and the death of her premature son, Lorraine reminds Annie that she took that pain as inspiration, as she went on to become a nurse and help many others. This adds a sense of purpose to her tragic loss and helps Annie let go of these burdens, which have weighed on her heart all her life.
When Annie meets Eddie, she learns the true meaning of making peace with one’s mistakes. Eddie explains his life as a maintenance worker and how he spent it feeling meaningless and unimportant. He carried the weight of his past as a prisoner of war in the Philippines and experienced the loss of his beloved wife, who was only in her forties. It was only when he died that he realized his seemingly monotonous life had a purpose: that all the maintenance work he did at Ruby Pier saved countless children’s lives. Eddie also found purpose in sacrificing himself for Annie and assures her that she need not feel guilty for what happened. He points out that saving her, along with all the other children he protected, was a way to atone for accidentally killing young Tala in the Philippines. Eddie insists that there are no mistakes, and that nothing in Annie’s life was meaningless: “The wrongs we do open doors to do right” (181). This enables Annie to forgive herself for making a decision that cost Eddie his life, as it helps her understand that Eddie’s death was not a senseless tragedy, but rather an act of redemption for him. This, along with the lessons Annie learned from Sameer, Cleo, and Lorraine, prepares Annie to meet Paulo and forgive herself for the hot air balloon accident.
When Annie meets Paulo in heaven, she realizes that she was not able to save him, and once again feels as if she made a terrible mistake. The sight of Paulo in heaven devastates Annie, bringing back all of her guilt and making her think that she has, once again, experienced a pointless, horrible loss. Paulo, however, changes her perspective and brings her back on track. He reminds her that his time with her was not a mistake, as it brought him a great deal of joy. He assures her that her sacrifice of a lung had a purpose, even though it did not save his life: “For a minute, I got to breathe as you. It was amazing” (203). Paulo adds to the lessons that the others taught Annie about the purpose of her injury, telling her that the parts of herself she so resented were precisely what drew him to her. Finally, Paulo helps Annie understand her ultimate purpose. He tells her that the culmination of her experiences, her characteristics, and her journey through the afterlife is meant to help her fulfill her calling as a nurse. He sends her back to Earth to continue helping others, pointing out that it is her responsibility to pay forward the gift of a second chance at life, just as she’d received. Lastly, he stresses that all of the people she’s met and the suffering she’s endured make her heart more complex, as they have enabled her to live a rich, full life.
In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie fulfills his life purpose by sacrificing himself to save Annie. He gains wisdom in the afterlife, and he is able to stay in heaven, at peace and ready to guide Annie and care for other children. Annie, however, has not yet fulfilled her own purpose, and Paulo pushes her back toward life so that she can do so. Annie goes back with the comfort of knowing that everything that may happen to her in the future will be for a reason and that she will touch more lives than she may ever know.
Death as a Part of the Life Cycle
Albom presents death as part of the life cycle, rather than a permanent end or something to fear. Annie’s experiences in death are not always comforting, but each one leads her closer to the inner peace that she desperately needs. The first chapter of the book examines timeless questions about the right time to die, whether such a thing exists, and whether heaven awaits the living. In Albom’s story, death is not a final curtain call: “All endings are also beginnings, we just don’t know it at the time” (210). This theme aligns with the other religious ideology present in the book, presenting the time after death as a second stage of existence filled with clarity and peace.
Annie reaches heaven confused about why she is there: “But it wasn’t my time. I’m not old or sick. I’m just… […] a person who makes mistakes” (45). When Annie meets her first person in heaven, Sameer, he teaches her that death is simply a part of the process that everyone must go through, and is not something to assign an appropriate time, circumstance, or age to. Sameer explains that death can happen to a person any time, for any number of unpredictable reasons. This adds to his message that accepting the misfortunes of one’s life is part of healing from them.
Annie learns similar lessons with Eddie and Paulo. Annie blames herself for the fact that Eddie died saving her because she feels her poor decision cost him his life. In the afterlife, she sees that Eddie lost nothing—that instead, he gained resolution and peace. Similarly, Annie feels guilty for Paulo’s death. She admits to Lorraine that being in the hospital with Paulo reminded her of her son’s death, a loss that overwhelmed her with grief and left lasting scars on her heart. Paulo, like Eddie, helps her adjust her perspective. By the time she returns to Earth, Annie is no longer filled with grief and loneliness. She wakes from her coma knowing that Paulo is happily waiting for her to live out the rest of her life and join him after she has fulfilled her purpose.
In death, Annie learns and matures in ways she could not in her life on Earth, which was clouded by regret, grief, and guilt. Death becomes a process of resolution for Annie, as it was for all those she meets. In a symbolic demonstration of Annie’s growth, she slowly regains both her body and her courage, until both are strong enough for her to return to Earth. Each person that Annie meets in the afterlife imparts a lesson that helps bring clarity and peace to Annie’s past, present, and future. By the time she reaches Paulo, Annie has come to understand that death is not a final cessation of life. She understands that she does not need to live out the rest of her life burdened by grief and guilt, as not only was she not responsible for anyone’s deaths, but those people she lost are at peace in their uniquely joyful heavens.
When Annie returns to Earth and gives birth to her daughter, she takes comfort in knowing that she can one day teach her daughter all the things she learned during her time in the afterlife: “She would tell her of the secrets she had learned on her visit, how one life touches another and that life touches the next. She would tell her that all endings are also beginnings, we just don’t know it at the time” (210). This ending shows that Annie no longer views death as something to fear, hate, or regret—instead, she understands that death is simply the next stage of existence, and she is content knowing she can pass this wisdom on to her child.
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By Mitch Albom
