The Last Box: What to Keep, What to Scan
She had owned that photograph for almost fifty years, and she had never once watched it matter to someone else.
Picture a woman named Elsie, 70, a widow with one box left. Every other closet in the house has been sorted. This box sits on the floor of the hall closet and holds photographs, letters tied with string, and a folder of her daughter's school drawings. Her daughter Mia, 41, offered to take the box. Mia's apartment is small, and Elsie knew the box would end up under a bed.
Elsie sat on the carpet for an hour with one photograph in her hand. It showed her friend Cora on a wedding day in 1978, laughing at something outside the frame. Cora had died four years ago. Elsie could not put the picture back in the box and could not put it in a bag either.
Mia sat down beside her and held up her phone. "What if we copy everything first?" she said. "Then you choose."
They scanned the whole box in one afternoon. The photographs went quickly with a phone. The letters took longer, and the drawings were photographed against a white wall. After that, every paper had a copy on a small screen that could travel in a pocket, and Elsie could look at each original and decide what it needed.
| In the box | The feeling it holds | Where the original went |
|---|---|---|
| Photographs of Cora | A friend who laughed | To Cora's granddaughter, Zoe, 24 |
| Letters from her husband | His voice | Kept, a small bundle |
| School drawings | Mia at seven | Mia chose five; the rest are scanned |
| Old receipts and forms | Nothing she could name | Recycled after a check |
Elsie mailed the wedding photograph to Zoe with a note. Zoe called her that week. "I have never seen her this young," she said. "She looks like me."
Elsie held the phone for a while. She had owned that photograph for almost fifty years, and she had never once watched it matter to someone else.
You could…
- Scan the whole box before deciding anything about it.
- Look through the scans for people in the pictures, and ask who might want the original.
- Keep one small bundle of originals, and store the scans in two places.
Who is in the photographs you are holding, and who might love to see them? Tell us below, and name the place if you can. A reader holding the other half of the same picture could find you.
Tell us in the comments