Meaning of Life in the Bridge of San Luis Rey

Meaning of Life
At the end of the book, the survivors gather. A year later, Camila Perichole visits Madre María when she realizes that the Abbess lost people she loved in the accident and she thinks that Madre María could understand the way she feels. Camila Perichole regrets about her inability to show love to her son and Uncle Pio and she knows that she failed to love them.
Finally, the daughter of the Marquesa, Doña Clara, also visits the Abbess, bringing with her the final letter written by her mother, with its stirring passage on love. Madre María is stunned by the words, and is reminded that grace may be discovered in unexpected ways. Seizing the moment, she shows Clara the work that she is doing at her convent.
The novel ends with the Abbess' following passage of great insight:
But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
This passage refers to love, the central theme of the novel. Madre María mentions that all human beings shall die as it is supposed to be but the memories of those five will have left the earth, here the text refers to Marquesa of Montemayor, Pepita, Esteban, Uncle Pio and Jaime but in general it refers to the ones, who we love and have died. These persons will be forgotten as well as we will be loved and also forgotten. However, most importantly is that we were able to love, while we were alive. The great display of affection that we demonstrate to the people is the one that made them. This is the reason why there is no need of memory when love exists. The memories about these persons survived through their love and the love which was given to them. The love is the breakable bridge that hangs...