It is such a beautiful touching book. Written in simple, conversational dialogue right from the heart. It touches my heart and soul. I read it and I felt for Allie and Noah. It crossed my mind of my complicated situation - "What if ...?"
Do such deep, undying love still exist? Allie and Noah fell deeply in love one summer. She was 15 years old and Noah was seventeen. They were separated due to status in the society. Over the years, what she did not know was Noah wrote to her letters every day for a year. When she never replied, Noah wrote one last letter professing his deep love for her. Allie, on the other hand, thought that Noah was just playing with her emotions and made used of her. The letters were taken and hidden by her mother. She waited for almost 14 years before decided to accept a marriage proposal. The war separated them with Noah enlisted in action and Allie volunteered as a nurse at a war camp. When Allie saw an article on Noah's house, she decided to return and close this chapter of her life before she got married in 3 weeks time. Noah never got married.
When they finally met up, all they discovered was the reality that they had never stopped loving each other. Her fiancee came to confront her and she had to make a choice. Choosing Noah would hurt and embarrassed her family, society and status as she was from the higher caste. She would be giving up living the luxury life she was used to, her status in her society confirmed with the marriage to an old family and her family would be a notch higher in the caste system of the south. She would be safe but dull, boring and half alive. Choosing her fiancee meant she would be giving up her love and her dreams. Noah made her feel alive, excited, comfortable, content and her dreams to be a painter supported and encouraged.
Her mother came and gave her all the letters that Noah had written. She chose to read the last letter. Her mother gave her parting words - "Follow your heart." She thought she heard wrong because her mother was the one who was really status-conscious. Allie finally chose Noah and gave up everything. They led a happy, beautiful life of for 45 years. Until she was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Thus, began the notebook. They wrote about their feelings, what they had gone through together, their love, their children .... all their lives ... before she started to forget. Allie booked them into a Home together. Noah was also starting to have acute athritis and rheumatoid of the fingers. He was also suffering from cancer. When she started to become worse with the disease and her memory no longer served her, Noah began reading to her the notebook everyday. He spent all his time with her and only went back to his room at night. She thrived and sometimes remembered. The Home loved their love story. When doctors were baffled by her stable condition, the nurses believed that their love sustained her. For two years he read to her about their life although she did not even know who he was. Yet they were compatible and content in each other's company.
Finally, when Noah had a stroke and was hospitalised, he fought back the pain by keeping the memory of Allie to pull him back so that he could still be by Allie's side and reading their live's story to her. One night, he sneaked into Allie's room, sat by the bed and held her hand. Noah also hoped that he would be the last to go so that Allie would not be alone .... they died still holding hands ...
I had a good cry and felt warm inside. What if at that time of my life .... if I had confronted "him" when he was engaged to be married, would he had chosen Allie's path? Did "he" love me enough to throw everything away? It was an arranged marriage. Disregarding it would be a shame on his family and his fiancee. No, I don't think "he" would do that. Responsibility and commitment constraint one's choices in life. It was just meant to be ... life has already been dictated by Allah.
Wouldn't it be so sweet if we had a love that could sustain us physically, emotionally and mentally? A love where we could not bear even the thought of being apart? A love sustained and gained over the years? A love where both understood each other that no words were needed?
Yet, in this world and society of ours, we accept. We lived and made the best of the situation. We love our partners as they have gone through a lot with us. Love NOT in love. Hence, the emptiness is there. The loneliness is there. The acceptance makes life bearable. At the end of the day, we realise that some people are meant to live in our hearts but not in our lives .....
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