I'm guessing that Thomas wound up dying instead of Nora. The locket is the key, as it had been throughout the movie (note that Brian did not actually see Nora until he had found the locket). It represents 'true love' and it was dropped in the fireplace. The fire in the fireplace consumed the locket's magic between Thomas and Nora therefore breaking the bond between them. At the moment the bond was broken, Brian was transported back to present day (that's the point where Nora and Thomas disappeared) and we then see that Thomas' name had been wiped from the phone book and replaced by Nora Hargarve.
Nora insisted she could not leave Thomas, and I don't think she would have/could have had the locket not been dropped into the fireplace.
We also see the locket at the end, 50 years later, and it looked like it always had, with it's magical powers preserved. It did not look like it had been harmed by being in the fire. The fact that the locket was in fine shape to me says that it is ready to start anew. This is another reason why I believe Thomas was out of the picture and therefore dead.
An interesting side note is when Julie picked up the locket, it slipped out of her hands and into the fireplace. It was Brian's locket at that point, and she was not welcome to it's magic so she could not hold onto it. It was meant to be 'true love' between Nora and Brian, only 50 years later Nora wanted her grand daughter to find the 'true love' that she could not have with Brian all those years.
ROTA Top Foreign Language Films List: http://www.imdb.com/list/qQvbXmXhhCU/
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