All Lives Intersect

One of my favourite authors is Mitch Albom of Tuesdays with Morrie fame. I had a rare chance to re-read his latest book The Five People You Meet In Heaven while Vera was asleep, and came across this poignantly perceptive passage:

"Did you ever wonder? Why people gather when others die? Why people feel they should?
It's because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed."