The Notebook

The famous Japanese actor, Hiroyuki Nagato, died on 21 May, 2011, at the age of 77. He was famous for his happy marriage. He devoted himself to caring for his wife in his later years. His wife was the Japanese actress Yoko Minamida. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and died in 2009. Constant care for an Alzheimer's sufferer is not an easy job, even for a loved one. After she died, he totally languished and lived in a sort of social cocoon.

This couple always reminds me of the novel, ‘The Notebook’ which is written by Nicholas Sparks, a bestselling American novelist. Honestly I haven’t read it but saw the film (2004). It’s a romantic film about a couple - Allie and Noah - who fell passionately in love, and got together over many years. In the film, an elderly Noah is reading out of a notebook to an elderly Allie about a story about the two of them in their early days, but she doesn’t recognise the story or their family due to her deteriorating dementia. Even so, for a few moments she comes back to reality and realises that the story is about them, but she relapses again. Noah reads it out to her again and again to see the real Allie for a brief time. One morning, they are both found dead peacefully, holding hands…

Oh gosh, I’m near to tears, I just wrote this article…

Anyway, I think everybody can be a couple like them, but it’s not easy. Sometimes you need to be patient, sometimes you may get angry and quarrel over something stupid, but essentially you need to understand him/her. To do that, it takes a long time to build up ties together. I think it’s true love :)

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