Content Warning: The source text deals with issues including terminal illness, assisted suicide, and mental health deterioration, including references to depression and anxiety.

Bloom and Brian’s communication notebooks are a symbol of The Power of Love and Connection in Challenging Times. In Part 1, Chapter 8, Amy Bloom details the inception of the notebooks, which predated Brian’s diagnosis: Their idea was to keep the books “to help [their] communication” (30). Over the course of the following years, the couple filled dozens of such books in lieu of maintaining a message board or calendar. The unconventional nature of this habit captures the uniqueness of the couple’s relationship. Bloom and Brian’s romance began as a rebellion, and the notebooks are another way in which their love transcends obstacles, circumstances, and prescriptions. After Brian’s death, Bloom retains the journals. They become a memento of the love she shared with her late husband and of all she and Brian overcame with and through one another.

Bloom’s tarot readings with Susie Chang symbolize balance. When Brian is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Bloom’s life becomes unfamiliar and unpredictable. Her husband is no longer the man she married. Her marriage no longer has the future she imagined.