{"id":10374,"date":"2020-07-04T20:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T00:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=10374"},"modified":"2020-07-10T21:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T01:25:00","slug":"the-first-person-you-meet-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-first-person-you-meet-in-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Person You Meet in Heaven: Eddie’s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is the first person you meet in Heaven in the book by Mitch Albom? What does this person have to do with main character Eddie’s life? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie’s death is unexpected, and before his death, he doesn’t give much consideration to the idea of the first person you meet in heaven\u2014or the second, for that matter. But Eddie is about to find out all about the first person you meet in Heaven on his remarkable journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The First Person You Meet in Heaven<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eddie is surprised to find out that the first person you meet in Heaven is someone he doesn’t know. To his greater shock, the first person is a man with blue skin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid,\u201d says the Blue Man. Although his voice is soothing, Eddie is still confused. He wonders why he is seeing this man that he never even knew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man begins to explain some things. He explains that Eddie feels like a young boy again because he was a child when the two crossed paths. He explains that, at this point, Eddie could have been dead for a minute, or an hour, or a thousand years. And he tells Eddie that he has come to heaven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In heaven, the Blue Man explains, 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. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Eddie wants to ask the Blue Man questions, he finds he cannot speak. The Blue Man tells him that when you first arrive in heaven, you lose your voice so that you can listen. However, Eddie manages to make out one question\u2014he asks how the Blue Man died. Slightly surprised, he smiles and says that Eddie killed him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie\u2019s Seventh Birthda<\/strong>y<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his seventh birthday, Eddie gets a brand new baseball. He and Joe play catch along Ruby Pier. Pretending to be a professional baseball player, he launches the ball toward his brother. But Joe ducks and the ball goes rolling across the boardwalk and behind the freak show tent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie and Joe enter the tent to retrieve the baseball. Joe gets scared and runs away crying. Eddie bravely gets the ball and goes toward the arcade after his brother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie tries to tell the Blue Man that there\u2019s no way he could have caused his death. So the Blue Man tells his<\/em> side of the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man\u2019s real name is Joseph Corvelzchik. He and his family immigrated from a small village in Poland and came to work in America. At the age of ten, he was put to work in a sweatshop. One day, Joseph accidentally spilled a bag of buttons in front of the foreman. Furious, the foreman screamed at him until he was so nervous he wet his pants. His father never looked at him the same after that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shame turned Joseph into a very nervous young man. He went to a chemist to try and find something to calm him. Joseph began taking a lot of silver nitrate, not knowing it was a poison that would turn his skin a strange shade of blue. Eventually, he was fired from his job and outcast because of his skin condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph had no choice but to join a traveling carnival as the Blue Man in a sideshow act. Eventually, he was given the job in the freak show at Ruby Pier. While at Ruby Pier, he found stability. He was able to give up the traveling lifestyle. He made friends to play cards with. Some days, he was even able to walk the beach without being stared at. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man explains to Eddie that Ruby Pier amusement park<\/a> is not Eddie\u2019s heaven. It\u2019s Joseph\u2019s<\/em> heaven. Eddie learns that the first person you meet in Heaven is not always who you expect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every story has different angles<\/strong>. Like the story of Eddie\u2019s seventh birthday. To Eddie, the story had a happy ending. He spent the rest of his birthday in the Ruby Pier arcade, playing with his brother. For the Blue Man, the story ended very differently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the day of Eddie\u2019s birthday, the Blue Man had been practicing his driving in a friend\u2019s Ford Model A. All of a sudden, he saw a baseball bouncing across the road, and a young boy chasing after it. The Blue Man slammed on the breaks and swerved out of the way to avoid hitting Eddie. He lost control of the car, and suffered extreme stress. The Blue Man had a heart attack behind the wheel and died alone at Ruby Pier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue man asks Eddie if he understands. Eddie shivers. It turns out that for Eddie, the first person you meet in Heaven comes with a difficult story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie\u2019s Eighth Birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie is sitting on the edge of the couch, pouting and complaining because he has to get dressed up and go somewhere on his birthday instead of getting to play. His father yells at him to be quiet, and Eddie obeys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, at the cemetery, Eddie notices that all the people from Ruby Pier, who normally dress in funny outfits, are wearing black. Eddie knows that he is supposed to be sad about something, but he is secretly counting down the moments until he can go back to his birthday celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie\u2019s First Lesson<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Eddie is scared and defensive. He promises the Blue Man that he had no idea what he had done. He is afraid that he will have to pay for his sin. He wonders if the first person you meet in Heaven is meant to show you the wrongs you’ve committed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man smiles and reassures him that he is only here to learn. He says that all five people that Eddie will come across in heaven have one lesson to teach him: that all lives are connected and nothing is completely random<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man lifts his hand and suddenly they are standing in the cemetery where he was buried. Eddie looks around at the funeral he attended as a boy, realizing he had no idea the part he played in it. He wonders if there was a funeral for his own death. He asks the Blue Man if he saved the little girl at the pier. The Blue Man doesn\u2019t answer, so Eddie assumes that his death was a waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue man says, \u201cthe only time wasted is the time we spend thinking we\u2019re alone.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Man takes Eddie into a hug and Eddie is flooded with all of the emotions that the Blue Man felt in his life – the nerves, the loneliness, the embarrassment. As the Blue Man goes to leave, his skin turns a lovely shade of caramel, the most beautiful skin Eddie has ever seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie tries to call to the Blue Man, to ask him to stay, but he is suddenly carried into the air. He flies away from the cemetery and past Ruby Pier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 P.M., Sunda<\/strong>y<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd at Ruby Pier stands silently and helplessly around the wreckage of Freddy\u2019s Free Fall. From the back of the group, Dominguez busts through. He sees Eddie\u2019s body and breaks down. Carnival music plays over the loudspeakers as the ambulances arrive and the police tape off the scene. The park is empty by sunset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie\u2019s Seventeenth Birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up in his bedroom, Eddie can smell the special birthday dinner his mom is cooking for him. He\u2019s reading a comic book when she calls him to come downstairs and join the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he gets to the kitchen, Joe announces that Eddie met a girl the night before at Ruby Pier. Eddie is embarrassed, but Joe doesn\u2019t stop. He continues to say that Eddie wants to marry this girl. Eddie punches Joe on the arm, and the two fight until their father breaks it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may wonder about the first person you meet in Heaven. Like in the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven<\/a><\/em>, the afterlife is a mystery. But even if you don’t know about the first person you meet in heaven, you can consider the themes of the book, like learning to live without regret. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who is the first person you meet in Heaven in the book by Mitch Albom? What does this person have to do with main character Eddie’s life? Eddie’s death is unexpected, and before his death, he doesn’t give much consideration to the idea of the first person you meet in heaven\u2014or the second, for that matter. But Eddie is about to find out all about the first person you meet in Heaven on his remarkable journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,6],"tags":[94],"class_list":["post-10374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-improvement","category-spiritual","tag-the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe First Person You Meet in Heaven: Eddie's Journey - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is the first person you meet in Heaven? For Eddie, it's someone he never expected. 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Later, after dinner, Eddie\u2019s mother turns on the radio to news of war. Because it\u2019s Eddie\u2019s birthday, she chooses to turn the dial until there\u2019s music. She asks Eddie to dance with her like he danced with the girl he met. Soon, Eddie, Joe, and their mother are all dancing around the living room and laughing<\/a> together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n