{"id":10351,"date":"2020-07-02T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=10351"},"modified":"2020-07-10T21:25:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T01:25:25","slug":"death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Is Just the Beginning: Finding Life in the Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is it true that death is just the beginning? Is there really an afterlife? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-5-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\">Five People You Meet in Heaven<\/a>,<\/em> main character Eddie finds out. The book is a work of fiction, but grapples with the idea that death is just the beginning and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Death Is Just the Beginning <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When Eddie dies, it is sudden. Unhappy in his life, Eddie&#8217;s journey in the afterlife helps him make peace with his death, and his life. In his death, he realizes that death is just the beginning, and that he was, and always will be, connected to others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One day, at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ruby-pier-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\">Ruby Pier Amusement Park<\/a>, a man named Eddie dies. <strong>Like most endings, Eddie\u2019s death is just the beginning<\/strong>, even though he doesn\u2019t know it. It is Eddie\u2019s 83rd birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie spends his last day working at Ruby Pier Amusement Park, like he has for most of his life. His job is to maintain and fix the park\u2019s many rides, attractions, and games. He always wanted to leave Ruby Pier. But after he came back from getting injured in the war, he felt stuck in his old life there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie hears screams. He looks up and sees that the Freddy\u2019s Free Fall ride has a broken cart. He and his co-worker Dominguez are able to get the terrified passengers off the ride. But then, the broken cart begins to fall. Eddie sees a young girl sitting in harm\u2019s way, so he runs towards her. The last thing he remembers is feeling her small hands in his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly, he finds himself in heaven. Eddie learns that in heaven, <strong>you will meet five people. Each of these people played an important part in your life, even if you didn\u2019t know it at the time. Meeting these people is meant to help you understand the meaning of your life.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Journey and Arrival<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie did not get to witness anything after his final breath. He didn\u2019t see the cart shatter or the crowd on the pier. He remembers the little girl\u2019s face as she cried and the feeling of her hands in his. <em>Then what? <\/em>He wonders if he was able to save her.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie is floating in the sky, which turns from pink to yellow to green to sapphire. He feels calm. Any pain or sadness he had in life has vanished. He wonders where his worry has gone. Now, he is dropping towards a colorful ocean, but he is not afraid. He is about to find out that death is just the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie wakes up in a teacup. Though his instinct is to reach for his cane, he realizes it isn\u2019t there and he doesn\u2019t need it. His back doesn\u2019t hurt. His knee doesn\u2019t throb. He jumps out of the teacup and lands awkwardly on the ground. Three things strike Eddie as odd:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>He feels great.<\/li><li>He is completely alone.<\/li><li>He is still at Ruby Pier. But it\u2019s the Ruby Pier he knew as a young boy, 75 years ago.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie begins to walk around and take in his surroundings. Realizing he feels no pain, he starts to run for the first time in 60 years &#8211; the first time since the war. He runs and leaps and tries to fly like a child would. He only stops when he hears a voice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking towards a large theater, Eddie realizes it\u2019s the voice of a barker announcing a freak show. As a kid, Eddie always felt bad for the cast of the freak shows and how they were forced to sit behind bars while people pointed at them. For some reason, he still walks inside.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Death Is Just the Beginning: <strong>Eddie Moves On<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie is hanging in a white, silent place. The only noise is his own labored breathing. Eddie realizes that Marguerite is gone, and is overcome with an empty feeling. After some time, Eddie hears a noise and opens his eyes. This feels different than the first four areas of heaven he\u2019s seen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He hears the noise again\u2014louder this time. It is a noise that has haunted his dreams. The sound is like a medley of squeals and cackles. He yells into the white void: <em>What do you want?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, the noise changes. He hears running water and sees that there is now ground under his feet. He is relieved to see that the noise is nothing but the sound of thousands of children <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advantages-of-laughing\/\">laughing<\/a> and playing. He wonders if that is what he\u2019s been dreaming about all this time, when he thought he was having nightmares.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the children catches Eddie\u2019s eye. The young girl is standing on a boulder, and she motions for him to come towards her. In an attempt to follow, Eddie falls on his bad knee. A burst of wind picks him up and places him down right in front of the little girl.&nbsp;Death is just the beginning, and Eddie is about to meet another one of his people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eddie&#8217;s Birthdays<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie is 51. It\u2019s his first birthday since losing Marguerite. She would always insist Eddie celebrate his birthday with taffy, friends, and cake. Now, he doesn\u2019t celebrate\u2014he goes to work and comes home to watch TV, as he always does.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie\u2019s 60th birthday is a Wednesday. He makes himself a sandwich and uses a piece of it as bait for fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Eddie\u2019s 68th birthday, Joe calls him from Florida. Eddie mostly just says \u201cuh-huh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie turns 75 on a Monday. He notices that one of the Ruby Pier workers missed a brake test on one of the rides the night before. So Eddie sighs and checks it himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie is 82. He has a taxi pick him up from Ruby Pier and take him to the cemetery. He visits his mother\u2019s grave, Joe\u2019s grave, and his father\u2019s. He saves Marguerite for last. He imagines eating taffy with her one last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Eddie\u2019s Final Lesson<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The little girl standing before Eddie has beautiful, dark skin and arresting black eyes. She waves her hands excitedly to Eddie. Her name is Tala. He repeats, \u201cTala.\u201d Then she begins to name things in her own language and Eddie imitates each word.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie sees the other children in the water around them. They are bathing with stones. Tala says that is how their mothers used to wash them. Then Tala notices pipe cleaners in Eddie\u2019s shirt. He twists up a little dog for her. He asks her if she likes the toy, but she answers \u201cYou burn me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tala tells Eddie that she used to have to hide from soldiers. Eddie is horrified because he knows that she was the shadow he saw in the flames the day of his escape from captivity. Looking into Tala\u2019s eyes, he is heartbroken. He begins to sob and wail, asking for forgiveness for the things he\u2019s done. Eddie continues to weep while Tala plays with her pipe cleaner dog.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tala hands Eddie a stone and asks him to wash her. She removes her shirt and Eddie is startled to see that her skin is burned and scarred. As he washes her with the stone, the scars begin to fall away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tala uses her fingers to tell Eddie that she is his fifth person. A tear falls down Eddie\u2019s cheek, and Tala asks him why he was sad in his life. Just like he told the Blue Man, the Captain, Ruby, and Marguerite, Eddie says that he was sad because he was stuck at Ruby Pier his whole life. He didn\u2019t feel that\u2019s where he was meant to be. But Tala tells him that <strong>he <em>was<\/em> meant to stay at Ruby Pier. He was keeping other children safe<\/strong>\u2014making up for the harm that he accidentally caused Tala. Then she calls him \u201cEddie Maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sitting in the river, Eddie can sense that he will be moving on soon. So he asks Tala if she knows about the little girl he died trying to save. He wants to know if he was able to pull her out in time. Tala says no.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie didn\u2019t pull the little girl, he pushed her out of the way of the falling car and into safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eddie is confused, because the only thing he remembered of his last moment was the little girl\u2019s hands in his. Tala smiles and holds Eddie\u2019s hands. The hands Eddie remembers were Tala\u2019s hands as she pulled him into heaven to keep him safe.&nbsp;Eddie realizes that death is just the beginning, and his journey will continue to connect him to the people who are living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly, the river water begins to rise. Eddie is carried away by a current. He is still holding Tala\u2019s hand. As he continues to float along, he feels his soul leaving his body. He is going through the colors again, like he did when he first arrived in heaven, and he realizes that these are all of the emotions he felt in life. Soon, he emerges from the water into a dazzling light. This is what he sees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Thousands of happy men, women, and children are walking along the boardwalk of Ruby Pier. These are all of the people in the past, present, and future who Eddie has affected in his time as a maintenance man. Hearing the voices of all the people that he has kept safe, Eddie feels peace.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Letting go of Tala\u2019s hand, Eddie floats up above the park. At the top of the Ferris wheel, Marguerite waits for him with open arms. Marguerite\u2019s smile and the voices of the children down below are like a message from God: <strong>Eddie is home<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So is it true that death is just the beginning? In T<em>he Five <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mitch-alboms-the-fivee-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\">People You Meet in Heaven<\/a><\/em>, the answer is yes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is it true that death is just the beginning? Is there really an afterlife? In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, main character Eddie finds out. The book is a work of fiction, but grapples with the idea that death is just the beginning and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,6],"tags":[94],"class_list":["post-10351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-spiritual","tag-the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Death Is Just the Beginning: Finding Life in the Afterlife - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some people say death is just the beginning. But is it? 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In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie goes on a journey in the afterlife.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-03T00:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-11T01:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Death Is Just the Beginning: Finding Life in the Afterlife\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-03T00:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-11T01:25:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\"},\"wordCount\":1691,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Five People You Meet in Heaven\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Philosophy\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/\",\"name\":\"Death Is Just the Beginning: Finding Life in the Afterlife - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/death-is-just-the-beginning-five-people-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-03T00:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-11T01:25:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"Some people say death is just the beginning. 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