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Eddie’s Mother
Eddie’s only love interest, a sunny and energetic woman. Like Eddie’s mother, she is kind and gentle, and preoccupied mainly with her husband and having children. However, in contrast with Eddie’s mother, Marguerite exerts her wishes somewhat more freely. While Eddie dreams of greatness away from Ruby Pier, Marguerite makes the best of their situation in the present. Her primary goal is to have children, but she is infertile. Her attempt to arrange an adoption fails when she gets into a car accident that drains their financial resources. Marguerite is the central source of Eddie’s happiness, and his life plunges when she dies of brain cancer at the age of 47. In heaven, she takes Eddie to a heaven full of weddings, where she teaches him that true love never dies.
Marguerite Quotes in The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The The Five People You Meet in Heaven quotes below are all either spoken by Marguerite or refer to Marguerite. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
For the rest of his life, whenever he thought of Marguerite, Eddie would see that moment, her waving over her shoulder, her dark hair falling over one eye, and he would feel the same arterial burst of love.
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Chapter 14 Quotes
As always with Marguerite, Eddie mostly wants to freeze time.
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Chapter 21 Quotes
How can he explain such sadness when she is supposed to make him happy? (…) She looks beautiful wearing the print dress Eddie likes, her hair and lips done up. Eddie feels the need to inhale, as if undeserving of such a moment. He fights the darkness within him. “Leave me alone,” he tells it. “Let me feel this way, I should feel it.”
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Chapter 28 Quotes
What people find then is a certain love. And Eddie found a certain love with Marguerite, a grateful love, a deep and quiet love, but one that he knew, above all else, was irreplaceable. Once she’d gone (…) he put his heart to sleep.
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That was my choice (…) A world of weddings, behind every door. Oh, Eddie, it never changes, when the groom lifts the veil, when the bride accepts the ring (…) They truly believe their love and their marriage is going to break all the records…
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Marguerite Character Timeline in The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The timeline below shows where the character Marguerite appears in The Five People You Meet in Heaven. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...described as his “usual spot.” Sitting there, he begins to remember the day he met Marguerite, his “one true-love.” This was years before, when they were both teenagers at Ruby Pier....
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...minutes left to live, the novel returns to Eddie, warmly remembering his first dance with Marguerite at Ruby Pier on the dance floor once called the “Stardust Band Shell.” The Judy...
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Chapter 13
...“Crazies” force the unit into a dark coalmine. At night, Eddie holds a photo of Marguerite that he keeps crumpled up in his helmet, and bargains with God to return him...
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Chapter 14
...sending him off with an emotional birthday celebration. Throughout the night Eddie thinks of asking Marguerite to wait for him, but he can’t bring himself to ask her, even as they...
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Chapter 16
...doesn’t know. He then gives Eddie his old helmet with his old crushed-up photo of Marguerite inside, and Eddie’s “heart aches.”
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Chapter 19
...in a Veteran Affairs hospital, after being returned home from war. His mother, father, brother, Marguerite, and Mickey Shea come into his room with a cake, singing “Happy Birthday.” Eddie wakes...
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Chapter 21
...as he wakes, making him feel detached and unmotivated. He fears explaining this darkness to Marguerite, because he thinks she is “supposed to make him happy.” That night, when Eddie returns...
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Chapter 22
...mother is deeply distressed, and she hardly ever leaves her husband’s hospital room. Eddie and Marguerite spend all of their time taking care of his mother, while Eddie tries to help...
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...After his father’s death, Eddie’s mother starts to lose touch with reality, and Eddie and Marguerite decide to move in with her. Eddie starts working full-time at Ruby Pier, because the...
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Chapter 23
...at Brighton. Noel invites him to the horse tracks that night, and Eddie thinks of Marguerite and hesitates—but then says yes anyway.
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Chapter 26
...“For the bitter and the sweet.” As she approaches, Eddie recognizes her as a young Marguerite, and he falls to his knees.
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Chapter 27
...has a new job as a salesman, making good money. Eddie is rife with jealousy. Marguerite is working at the ticket booth now, and she comes in looking for Eddie. As...
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Chapter 28
Eddie is stunned to see Marguerite in heaven, and insists that it can’t be her. He falls onto her shoulder, crying...
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Marguerite tells Eddie that she also met five people in heaven, and learned things, and that...
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Chapter 29
...Eddie bets again after every time he wins, trying to double his money. He calls Marguerite to tell her he is winning, but she is angry and yells at him. They...
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Chapter 30
After Marguerite’s accident, she is hospitalized and then bed-ridden for six months. Because of the medical expenses...
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A few years later, Marguerite is cooking in the kitchen when suddenly her hand freezes, she feels dizzy, and falls...
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In heaven, all Eddie wants is time with Marguerite. They spend countless nights and days, talking and walking through Marguerite’s world of weddings. Eddie...
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Chapter 31
After a long time in heaven, Marguerite tells Eddie that she knows he was angry with her for dying. He eventually admits...
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Chapter 33
Surrounded by silence and whiteness, Eddie misses Marguerite terribly. He feels nothing, and a long time passes in that empty place. He then...
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Chapter 34
It is Eddie’s fifty-first birthday, his first birthday since Marguerite died. He remembers how much he hated his birthdays in the years after Marguerite’s accident,...
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Chapter 35
...as he floats above the boardwalk. He then comes to the big Ferris wheel, where Marguerite is sitting and waiting for him. Eddie hears the voice of God say: “Home.”
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