Connecting heaven and earth?

I only experienced one heavy rain shower today. First day not to get wet on the bicycle in many days! It was a beautiful evening on the east coast and I went for a walk with Jordan O'Brien in the Curragh. It was a perfect evening and Kildare was looking magnificent. We called into Lumville House for a drink. Over 23 years ago John O'Gorman, Canice Murphy and I often called into Lumville for a drink on a Sunday evening before going back to teaching the next day in Newbridge.
The past so often seems idyllic but they were great days. And John is dead now. He was a genius. Is there a heaven where he is experiencing the love and reality of God? But where has all his knowledge gone? At first he was sceptical of what I would tell him about where our province was heading but probably after the 'Alfie' experience and one or two other events he began to see the 'light'.
He could cut through the humbug with laser precision, especially the pious humbug and all the nonsense that religious life has managed to collect over the years.
He once suggested that the province should offer redundancy packages to those who wanted to leave. He argued that many stayed because they were simply unemployable and could not keep up the same standard of life they had become accustomed to in the order if they left.
A Roman taxi driver thought John was a Roman so good was his Italian. But he never lost or forgot his Cork accent.
Mathematics was his first and real home and he got so bored in theology class that he began to take notes through the medium of Greek. He resigned his priesthood but remained a Dominican.
So, what is heaven, where is it. Is death the end. The only time I am ever convinced that death is not the end is when I visit my parents' grave or recall to mind close friends who are dead. Is it some sort of consolation, an escape from the thought of destruction, annihilation?