LIMBO

I was educated by Catholic nuns, brothers and priests so got indoctrinated taught Christian doctrine under the guise of the cataclysm catechism.
Christian doctrine was a bit like a tamed down version of Grimm's fairy tales with absurd and incongruous stories of (our lord) Jesus Christ ascending into heaven under his own steam and his mother (the virgin) Mary being assumed into heaven (not under her own steam).
For us to grasp this (ha, ha) we had to learn about heaven and hell.

Hell according to the poorly educated nuns and brothers was  a place of perpetual fiery torment. The nuns and brothers quite literally assumed (not into heaven) that fiery torment meant being forever consumed by flames.

The priests who were better educated at theological colleges and seminaries described hell as a place of perpetual torment at being separated from (our lord god) Jesus Christ.

So what about heaven?
All the religious teachers described heaven as a wonderful place where the good person would be forever in the company of (our lord god) Jesus Christ.

OK

What else?

That was it. Heaven as a wonderful place where the good person would be forever in the company of (our lord god) Jesus Christ.

To me that sounded boring.

Fortunately the deranged delirious determinant creators of the catechism threw in limbo as a third option.
Limbo apparently is a place between hell and heaven. It's a kind of waiting room where you hang around doing normal stuff until your number is called and you can toddle off (up?) to heaven.
Limbo is not as fearsome as hell which is good and you aren't forever in the company of (our lord god) Jesus Christ which to me is also good. I liked the idea of limbo.

Wikipedia says a lot about limbo. Here's a bit to get you going:

The "Limbo of the Patriarchs" or "Limbo of the Fathers" (Latin limbus patrum) is seen as the temporary state of those who, in spite of the personal sins they may have committed, died in the friendship of God, but could not enter Heaven until redemption by Jesus Christ made it possible. The term "Limbo of the Fathers" was a medieval name for the part of the underworld (Hades) where the patriarchs of the Old Testament were believed to be kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death^[1] through crucifixion and freed them (see Harrowing of Hell). The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes Christ's descent into "hell" as meaning primarily that "the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead." It adds: "But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there." It does not use the word "Limbo".^[2]The Limbo of the Fathers was the abode of people who, before Jesus' Resurrection, had died in the friendship of God, but had to wait for Christ to open heaven's gates. This concept of Limbo affirms that one can get into heaven only through Jesus Christ but does not portray Moses, etc., as being punished eternally in Hell.

Limbo, like heaven and hell is open to interpretation by scholars, poets and painters.
Here's Dominico Beccafumi's take on it which is not too bad.

Heironymous Bosch typically has a scarier view. I think old Bosch hoped that limbo could be a bit like hell so he could depict devils sticking sharp things up people's bums.

I prefer Bryan Ferry's take on limbo: