The Stranger in the Lifeboat

by Mitch Albom

It has always been a mystery to me, Annabelle, how beauty and anguish can share the same moment.

The possibilities of another person! Is there any anticipation on this Earth quite like that one? Is there anything lonelier than being without it?

in my mind, cemented my father as forever a bastard, and me, by definition, a bastard as well.

I have been a poor man in many ways, Annabelle. Perhaps, upon reflection, even an unlucky one. But I was lucky in the most important way.

I am thirty-seven years on this Earth, and I have been a fool for most of them. In the end, I failed you, as I always feared I would. I am sorry for everything.

“They’re all gone, Alice! Even the Lord.” Which is when the little girl finally spoke. “I am the Lord,” she said. “And I will never leave you.”

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKK.

“When someone passes, Benjamin, people always ask, ‘Why did God take them?’ A better question would be ‘Why did God give them to us?’ What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet moments we shared?

“Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas. I go on. And because I go on, you go on with me. Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you. But the human form is not permanent. It was never meant to be. That gift belongs to the soul.