It's their forty-ninth anniversary but it's also against the rules for him to visit her at night. When he does return to the nursing facility where he and Allie have lived since the onset of her Alzheimer's, he wants to see her. Then Noah suffers a stroke and for awhile it seems he might not survive. He likens living this near Allie without ever again being able to fully possess her love to the relationship between day and night, combined at dusk but never quite touching. Through their lives, the two have written letters to each other and these provide memories for Noah. ![]() He says that on those days, they'd both be exhausted with him answering questions and her anguish at having lost everything, including memories of her children. Noah admits that it breaks his heart that she doesn't know him, but that these days are much better than the days in which he tried to make her remember. They talk for hours with Allie later saying she knows which of the two the woman in the story picked, though she doesn't seem yet to equate that story with herself. She confesses that she doesn't know Noah and doesn't know her own name. On a particular day, Noah reads the story and Allie asks which man the woman in the story chooses. This is the story Noah reads to Allie and occasionally she responds to him, though the medical professionals say her response is impossible. She leaves but realizes she can't love anyone like she loves Noah and returns to him. The love between them immediately springs to life and Noah begs Allie to remain. It's then that Allie comes to visit him, three weeks from her wedding date but seemingly unable to marry without seeing Noah one more time. Noah works, joins the military and inherits money from a previous employer that allows him to buy a historic house and repair it. Noah writes letters to Allie over the years, but Allie's mother withholds them and Allie assumes Noah has forgotten her. The notebook is the story of Noah and Allie, two who were lovers as teenagers in a summer romance, but who were then separated by Allie's parents who felt Noah wasn't the best man for her. Believing in prayer as he does, he takes time to pray as he opens the book, puts on glasses and picks up a magnifying glass, and prepares to read. ![]() Noah knows the odds and science are both against him, and that he simply hopes for a miracle. Noah says mornings are always difficult and she will calm down later when the nurses have gone. He reaches a particular room and goes inside where he is greeted by nurses caring for a woman who is obviously upset. The people inside - like he - have gotten accustomed to being alone with only a television for company, and that a person can get used to anything. He says that he picks up a notebook that he has read many times and passes many doors. He describes his day in the nursing home. Noah begins by saying that he is eighty years old, that he does not regret any of the paths he has chosen to travel, and that the paths today are more rocky than those of years ago.
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