Allie drives to the inn and sees Lon’s car. She takes out the packet of letters from Noah and reads the final one. The letter says that he is not bitter for what has happened but that he will always treasure their summer together. She stops herself from reading another letter and goes inside, where Lon is waiting in the lobby.

In the present day, the elderly Noah closes the notebook and looks at the woman in the nursing home who he has “read to […] this morning, as I do every morning, because it is something I must do” (173). They always spend the day together, but their nights are spent alone. Sometimes he sneaks in to watch her sleep for a few moments because “[w]hen I look at her face, a face I know better than my own, I know that I have meant as much or more to her. And that means more to me than I could ever hope to explain” (174).

What they are doing will end soon, and his diary entries grow shorter each day. On most nights, he visits other residents on his floor and reads poems to them or tells them about adventures with Allie.