CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Summary

As the chapter opens, for a moment, Landon is 57 years old and it's forty years after he asked Jamie to marry him. And then, the past begins to unfold before him again, the anthropomorphic change taking us back to 1959. He remembers how breathlessly Jamie accepts his proposal and how he has to convince his parents and Hegbert that he isn't just doing this for Jamie, but that he needs to do it for himself as well. He knows that God has spoken directly to him and he must not disobey. He declares that he would marry Jamie Sullivan no matter what happens in the future or even if the miracle he has been praying for suddenly comes true. This he believes, because in this year, Jamie has helped him become the man he is at this moment and will be forever.

So, Jamie and Landon are married by Hegbert in the Baptist Church with Landon's father at his side as the best man. Yet another example of Jamie's impact on the people around her, his father would never have been his best man if she hadn't brought them back together again. She also helps heal some of the wounds that existed between their two families. Landon tells us that, because of her, the relationship between him and his father grew steadily stronger in all the years that followed until his father's death. Furthermore, Jamie has taught him all about the value of forgiveness and its transforming power. She never held any grudges and so she is truly the angel that not only transformed Tom Thornton, but the angel that transformed them all.

Just as she had wanted, the church is bursting with all their friends and family when they marry on March 12, 1959. All of these same people had gone out of their way to pull the wedding together on such short notice and there isn't a dry eye in the house when the entrance music begins. Jamie has insisted she will walk down the aisle on her father's arm, because it's part of her dream, and she will wear the dress she wore as the angel in the play. As they wait for Jamie to enter, Landon's father pats him on the arm and tells him how proud he is of him. Landon sincerely replies that he's proud of his father, too. When the wedding march begins, Jamie is sitting in a wheel chair with a nurse by her side. With all the strength she seems to have left, she stands shakily and takes her father's arm. They slowly make their way down the aisle, having to stop once while Jamie catches her breath. But then, they continue on. Landon thinks it's the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.

When they arrive at the front of the church, the nurse is waiting once more with the wheel chair and when Jamie reaches Landon's side, the congregation spontaneously begins to clap. Landon lowers himself to his knees to be on the same level as Jamie and his father does the same. Hegbert retrieves his Bible and seeing that he towers over them, he, too, kneels and Jamie takes his hand as well as Landon's, linking them together.

The ceremony begins traditionally with Hegbert reading the passage from Corinthians that Jamie had wanted, but then the older man stops and says that he cannot give Jamie away. The congregation grows silent as Hegbert explains that he can't give her away any more than he can give away his heart. He can only let another share in the joy that she has always given him. He then blesses them both and leads them through their vows. Landon reflects, In front of God and everyone else, I'd promised my love and devotion, in sickness and in health, and I'd never felt so good about anything. It was, I remember, the most wonderful moment of my life.

The last two paragraphs of the chapter and the novel bring us back to the present where Landon tells us that it is now forty years later and that he knows when his time comes, the memories of that day will be the final images that float through his mind. He declares that he still loves her and that he has never removed his ring. In all these years, he has never felt the desire to do so. Then, he tells us that when he exhales, he's 57 once more, but that's okay. He smiles and looks toward the sky and reveals that there's one thing he still hasn't told us: he now believes that miracles can happen.

Notes

The final chapter is both a study in the poignant, unforgettable moments of life and an ending that is at once a mystery and as clear as the light of Heaven. We see Landon declare his love for Jamie and she for him among all the people they know and love and who know and love them, too. We see Landon reflect on the basic goodness that Jamie showed to everyone she met and how she changed them all for the better. The Lord's Plan, that she could never quite see, is her - she is the one who brings out the best part of them all; she is the catalyst that allows change for the better to take place. Without Jamie, they may all have been lost.

Jamie's dream wedding takes place exactly they way she wanted and in the end, her walk to remember down the church aisle is a reminder of the metaphoric walks they all have taken as she has impacted on their lives. This is especially true for Landon who knows even forty years later that he would do the same thing all over again. It was the most wonderful moment of his life.

As for the ending, it's a mystery, because the Nicholas Sparks, the author, reveals one thing he hasn't told the reader - that he now believes miracles can happen. He For those who are realists, the fact that he looks to the sky as he says this is an indication that Jamie died, but that his love for her and the way she helped him change, which is the real miracle, has sustained him for forty years and that he seems to look forward to the day when they will meet again. For the romantics who read Landon's final comment, the miracle he had been praying for had come true after all - Jamie lived and forty years later, he still loves her as his wife. Of course, no matter which ending the reader believes, the true meaning is still clear - with love, you can do all things.

Sparks has noted that the story of A Walk to Remember was inspired by his sister Danielle, who died from cancer in 2000 at the age of 33. Her life shared many of the same aspects and events of the fictionalized life of Jamie.