Ruth Jewell's poem is about grief that begins while the loved one is still alive. The speaker watches someone slip away "each word, each look," and the sorrow builds slowly, which the poem shows by breaking "little / by / little" across three lines. The images of a door closing and a window being shuttered suggest the person's world is shrinking, perhaps through illness or age, though the poem never says exactly why. The speaker wants them to stay, to "laugh, to sing, to dance," but accepts that there is no choice.
What the speaker feels is a mix of helplessness, tenderness and quiet resignation. The repeated "one step at a time" gives the poem a slow, steady rhythm, like a walk toward something unavoidable. Memories, such as stars on the deck, silly dog antics and cuddles on the couch, are kept in a "golden box" of the heart. The ending is gentle: love can't defeat grief, but it can hold and cradle it, so the mood settles into sad but warm acceptance.