First Phone Call from Heaven

by Mitch Albom

He draped himself in her sad memory, because it was the closest thing to having her around.

You are so much lighter than you think.”

“Fear is how you lose your life . . . a little bit at a time. . . . What we give to fear, we take away from . . . faith.”

Knowing heaven is what heals us on earth.

“I believe that life, like matter, is indestructible,”

Sometimes what you miss the most is the way a loved one made you feel about yourself.

“If you find one true friend in life, you’re richer than most. If that one true friend is your husband, you’re blessed.”

He’d heard Anesh Barua—in a “pre-interview”—speak about his daughter, who had told him heaven was “endless light.” And Eddie Doukens, whose ex-wife described heaven as “our first house together, when our children were playing.” Tess Rafferty claimed her mother, Ruth, told her that heaven is where “all is forgiven,” where there are no “terrors of the night or arrows of the day.”

Sometimes questions can be more cruel than insults.

At one point after the call had abruptly ended, Elias asked his pastor, “Does this prove what we believe?” and Warren softly said, “If you believe it, you don’t need proof.” Elias didn’t say much after that.