My mother passed away in August of 2022, and among the things I received from this amazing woman were many books. My mother had these very beautiful labels that she would put inside her books and wrote her name to indicate they were from her library. A couple of weeks ago, I opened one of those books, and not only had she written her name, but she had also noted who gave her the book because it was a gift.
I ended up calling that person, and we had a great chat—not only about why they gave that book to my mom, but also about the book itself and, of course, about my mother. Through that conversation, the person who gave the gift to my mom gave me quite a gift as well—memories of her.
It made me realize that the things we leave behind, if we leave a little note about where they came from, can connect people to us in ways we might not have imagined. I’m making a point to do that from now on.