The Notebook: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

The story ended, the elderly Noah closes his notebook and removes his glasses from his tired eyes. He looks at the woman sitting across from him—she is staring out at the courtyard, where families and friends are visiting other patients. Noah watches the serene scene outside with his companion, all the while knowing how painful it will be for his fellow patients when their loved ones leave for the day.

Noah reads to his companion each and every morning without fail—it is something he must do for a “romantic” reason, he says. Though he and his companion spend their days together, their nights are spent alone—he is not allowed to see his companion after dark, and though he understands the reasons why, he sometimes sneaks out of his room and into hers to watch her sleep peacefully. Her face in sleep is more familiar to him than his own—the two of them have been married for nearly 49 years.

Noah knows that soon his life will be over—his pain grows every day while his capacity for thinking and writing decreases. He still loves poetry and often reads to his friends in the nursing home. He has gained a reputation as a caring man who can get through to anyone, and he visits his fellow patients each night. He often tells his friends stories from the early days of his marriage, regaling them with tales of adventures to art shows in New York and Paris. He reads poems too, feeling his favorite verses tell his friends just as much about him as personal stories—he wants them to know who he is.

Back in the present, Noah inches closer to his companion and sits in the chair beside her bed. He takes her hand. She softly rubs his fingers with her thumb, and she tells him that the story he read to her was beautiful—then she asks if Noah himself wrote it. He tells her that he did. The woman says she feels she’s heard the story before, and she admits that hearing it makes her feel less afraid. She asks if it is a true story, and Noah says that it is. The woman asks which man Allie married. Noah replies only that she married “the one who was right for her.” He assures his companion that by the end of the day, she’ll know which man Allie chose.

The woman says she has another question for Noah, but she is afraid it will hurt his feelings. He tells her to ask away, even though he knows her words will scar him. The woman softly asks Noah who he is. Noah is heartbroken—his beloved Allie can no longer recognize him.

Noah and Allie have lived at the Creekside Extended Care Facility, a nursing home, for more than three years. They came here after boarding up their beloved house in New Bern, unable to bring themselves to sell it. Though Noah was initially skeptical of Allie’s desire to go live in a home, he now appreciates her foresight—the “clock” of their mortality ticks more loudly each day. Noah’s rheumatoid arthritis, failing kidneys, low heart rate, and prostate cancer make his days painful.

Noah and Allie have four living children—the fifth they lost as an infant. Their children often come to visit, but Noah finds that his happy memories of his children are just as comforting as their actual visits. He wonders if Allie dreams of them—she does not know who they are any longer. Noah thinks often of his own father, and he wonders what his daddy would think of how his life has turned out.

Noah, still reeling from Allie’s question, replies that his name is Duke. Allie apologizes for not knowing him and admits that she doesn’t even know her own name. She begs “Duke” to help her remember who she is. Noah tells Allie that her name is Hannah—that she is a lover of life and an artist who has led a full, happy existence. She has wanted for nothing, he tells her, because her needs have always been spiritual. He recites a portion of a Walt Whitman poem: “Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,” the poem begins. When Noah finishes, Allie asks him if he wrote the poem. Allie asks Noah to stay with her for a while. He promises her he’ll stay as long as she wants, and he asks her to take a walk with him.

Allie, Noah reveals, became a famous artist who was widely lauded as one of the most important Southern painters of the 20th century. Her paintings now hang in galleries around the world. Noah still keeps the first painting she ever made for him on the wall of his room in the nursing home.

Noah never could have expected the turn his and Allie’s final years would take. When Allie began acting distracted and forgetful, he dismissed her slips of the tongue and occasional confusion about the date as ordinary. But one day, when Noah found Allie in her car three blocks away, crying and unable to find her way home, he knew something was terribly wrong. Six days later, after a series of tests, Allie and Noah’s physician Dr. Barnwell called them both into his office and informed them that Allie was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disorder which affects memory and personality. Allie and Noah crumpled into tears upon receiving the news while Barnwell expressed his sincerest condolences.

Upon returning home, Allie got to work instead of sinking into despair. She made arrangements to enter the nursing home, rewrote her will, composed burial instructions, and wrote letters to her friends, her children, her neighbors, and, of course, to Noah. When Noah reads Allie’s last letter to him, he is reminded of the many letters he wrote her over the years. The letters are a living document of the romance and passion that has always defined their relationship—romance and passion that has lasted over 40 years. The letters encompass everything—joy, sorrow, desire, and reverence.

Several nights ago, as Noah found himself sifting through these letters, he began reading the last letter he wrote to Allie. The letter, written outside on their porch, tells of how Noah summoned all their children—visiting the house to provide support and comfort in the wake of the news about Allie’s diagnosis—into the kitchen in order to tell them the story of the day in 1946 when Allie returned to New Bern.

In telling his children the story of their reunion, Noah fills in the blanks about what happened between Lon and Allie at the inn. When Allie walked into the lobby and saw Lon, she took him on a walk around town and explained that she could not marry him. Lon accepted the news with grace and understanding. Noah and Allie’s children responded to the story emotionally, then spent hours with Noah telling stories of the thing they remembered most from watching their loving parents as children. Noah found himself touched by their recollections and more aware than ever of the fact that loving Allie made him into the man he was.

Presently, Allie and Noah wander down to a small creek to watch some geese on the water. Allie asks Noah if he was ever married. He says he was, and he begins to describe his beautiful wife—the only woman he ever loved. Allie hesitantly asks if Noah’s wife is dead. Noah replies that she is alive in his heart and always will be. Allie asks why Noah is spending the day with her and being so nice to her, and Noah replies that he’s with her because he’s meant to be. Allie calls Noah a “mysterious stranger.” Noah playfully retorts that women are supposed to love mysterious strangers. They laugh together and then return to silence as they watch the geese on the water. When Noah puts his hand on Allie’s knee, she does not react or push him away.

Noah explains that he is often purposefully vague in his answers to Allie, occasionally going so far as to offer her different names, because he has gotten into sticky situations before while trying to rouse her memories, hurting Allie or confusing her further. The “waterfall,” or huge influx, of information required to bring her up to speed is too much for either of them to bear.

As Allie and Noah walk back up to the main building at dusk, Allie playfully tells Noah that she believes he is her secret admirer. In a small garden near the entrance, Noah picks some flowers for Allie and she smells their fragrant blooms. Allie holds out a small slip of paper and says that she found it beneath her pillow. She holds it out to Noah, who reads it: it is a poem about “awaken[ing] love.” Allie produces another—this one, she says, she found in the pocket of her coat. It is another people about two souls becoming one. Noah does not acknowledge that he is the one who has left the poems for her. At the doorway, Noah and Allie stop and look at each other. Allie explains that she wants to stare at her companion’s face so that she doesn’t forget this day.

Allie’s disease is no doubt advanced—she does not know who she is, and many mornings, she cries for hours. Sometimes she sees small people or gnomes in the corner of the room, and she often refuses to eat. In spite of all the setbacks Alzheimer’s has brought, however, Noah insists that Allie is a “miracle.” Sometimes, after Noah reads the notebook to Allie, her condition improves—and sometimes she even comes back to herself and remembers everything about her life. None of Allie’s doctors can come up with an explanation for these miraculous reprieves from her disease—but Noah knows that the power of love is stronger than their training and their books.

Noah leads Allie back to her room, where the nurses have set up a candlelit dinner for the two of them. As Allie spots the beautiful display, she turns to her companion and says she knows how the story in the notebook ended. Allie, she says, went with Noah. Noah confirms that she did. He helps Allie take her seat at the table, anxiously waiting to see if she will have a breakthrough. As an old song begins to play on the radio, Allie gives Noah a look that seems to come from another life—he smiles back at her and knows she has returned to him. He feels strong and proud. He tells Allie he loves her. “I’ve always loved you, Noah,” she replies.

Noah is thrilled, but he knows that Allie will not stay this way. Over the course of their dinner, she also seems to realize that she is on borrowed time. She tells Noah she is afraid to forget him again. Noah soothes her by promising her he’ll never leave her side. As the night grows darker, Noah listens to the ticking of the clock and waits for the “thief” to come.

Sure enough, after dinner, as Allie and Noah hold each other, Allie begins to blink and shake her head, staring at the corner of the room. She quietly tells Noah that there are tiny people in the corner staring at her. Noah realizes that Allie is slipping away. He tries to talk her through her fear, but Allie can no longer recognize Noah. She begins screaming, asking who he is and what he’s doing in her room. She orders him to stay away from her. Noah feels a terrible pain in his side. He presses a button to call for the nurses, and within 30 seconds, they arrive to sedate Allie.

Noah spends the rest of the evening alone in his room. Dr. Barnwell, who is making rounds, comes to visit Noah and talk with him. When Dr. Barnwell asks Noah about his day with Allie, and Noah tells him that he and Allie talked for over four hours, Barnwell is visibly impressed by how their connection overpowers Allie’s disease. Noah tells Barnwell that in spite of his progress today, he feels alone. Barnwell tries to comfort Noah by telling him that no one is alone, but Noah retorts that he himself is alone—and that Barnwell is too, whether or not he knows it. 

The following week, after several frustrating days of being unable to get through to Allie, Noah wakes up one morning to look at some old photographs and letters. He finds he cannot concentrate very well—he has a bad headache. He closes his eyes for a few moments to shake off the pain, but the throbbing in his head becomes worse. His hand begins to tingle and go numb, and his eyesight suddenly blinks out. Noah knows he is having a stroke. As he loses consciousness, his last thoughts are of Allie lying lost, confused, and alone in her bed down the hall.

Noah swims in and out of consciousness for days. When he is awake, he is aware of being intubated and hooked up to many humming, beeping machines. He hears his doctors talking about the complications he could face when he wakes up. He tries to blot out the pain and uncertainty by focusing on memories of Allie. Several days later, when Noah finally regains consciousness for good, he wakes up to find Dr. Barnwell sitting near his bed, smiling.

Two weeks later, Noah is able to leave the hospital. The right side of his body has been weakened, but he is grateful that he is not fully paralyzed. Noah returns to his room late at night with the help of a nurse who tells him how much all the other nurses and patients have missed him. After she leaves, Noah sits by his window and watches a storm rustle through the trees. Lightning lights up the sky and Noah contemplates how alone he is—even though Allie, the love of his life, is just down the hall. He stands up and effortfully goes over to his desk, where he looks through old pictures, letters, and a bouquet of dried flowers he gave to Allie long ago. He remembers being unable to understand why she kept them for so long, even as they grew brittle and frail.

It is nearly midnight when Noah sits down with the last letter Allie wrote to him before her mind began to go. The lengthy letter describes the day she came back to him at last, after meeting with Lon at the inn in New Bern and telling him the engagement was off. She recalls how kind and accepting Noah was when she returned—and how, since that moment, they never parted again. Allie writes about how foolish she felt in the days that followed for even imagining she could ever be with another. Allie goes on to express her gratitude for how sensitive, kind, and generous Noah is, especially when it comes to their beloved children. She thanks him for encouraging her work as an artist and for being a friend as well as a lover. 

At the end of the letter, Allie writes that while Noah might think she’s “crazy” for writing down their entire love story in the notebook, she knows it is important to have a record of their incredible romance. She is afraid to lose her memories—yet she promises that no matter what, she will find a way to come back to him in spite of her disease. She urges him to read the enclosed notebook to her to help jog her memories—and to be gentle with her on days she can’t push through.

Noah puts the letter aside and goes out to the hall. He sees that the night nurse, Janice, is seated at a station in the hall. This late at night, patients are not supposed to be out of their rooms. Nevertheless, Noah shuffles down the hall. Janice stops him and asks him if he’s going to see Allie. He says that he is, but Janice tells him that he shouldn’t. Noah tells Janice that it’s his and Allie’s 49th anniversary today. Janice grows somber and tells Noah that while the doctors don’t understand how Noah is able to beat Allie’s disease some days, the nurses do: love, she says, is the answer. Janice tells Noah that she is going downstairs for some coffee and won’t be back for a while—essentially giving him permission to head down to Allie’s room.

Noah slowly walks down the hall toward Allie’s room, feeling stronger and more powerful with each step. When he at last reaches her room, however, he is exhausted from the walk. His heart beats strangely and erratically as he enters Allie’s still, quiet room. He sits on the edge of her bed and slips a poem beneath her pillow. Unable to help himself, he reaches out and touches her face. Allie opens her eyes, and Noah waits for her to begin screaming or crying—instead, she simply stares at him lovingly. Noah bends his head to kiss Allie, and she responds. As moonlight filters through the window, Allie tells Noah how much she’s missed him and begins, slowly, to unbutton his shirt.