Today, I finished reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I found the quote that I mentioned in my post two days ago that inspired me to get this book and finally read it:

“‘Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different from, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.

‘Life has to end,’ she said. ‘Love doesn’t.'”

There was a period way back when I was about 8 or 9 when I tried to call Ed “Eddie.” He really hated it and refused to answer to it. But maybe now that he is in heaven and views life and the world differently, perhaps he wouldn’t mind being called Eddie.

The Eddie in this book reminded me of my Ed in so many ways – his view of the world, how he thought his life in the grand scheme of everything didn’t seem to matter, his relationship with his father, the violence and negligence he experienced, his inner loneliness that he constantly battled. It’s scary to think how similar Eddie and Ed were, and how during this very period in my life, when I have lost my brother forever, that I have been drawn back to this book that I had been wanting to read for so long. And now, I’ve finally read it.

Ed wanted me to read this book now. I guess it was meant to be this way.