Marc Sollinger

Welcome to The Moth.

I'm Marc Salinger.

Whenever a loved one passes away, they leave behind memories.

The way they laughed, their famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, the knowledge that you were cared for by someone special.

But they also leave behind things.

A locket with a picture of you as a child, a coffee table they made themselves, a wedding dress that's been passed down in the family for generations.

Physical objects that serve as reminders of who they were, what they valued, what they touched when they were alive.

I view them as little shards of their soul, still here, even though they can't be.

On this episode, two stories about the things we leave behind, and who takes care of them when we're gone.

First up is a story from Christina Mijani, who told this at a DC Story Slam.

Here's Christina, live at The Mock.

That was Christina Mijani.

Christina is a lawyer from Malta living in DC with her husband.

He jokes that he made sure her wedding ring came with a no-returns policy.

A poet since childhood, she also sits on the board of an NGO that promotes the arts.

My family and I moved around a lot when I was a kid, which meant that we didn't have too much stuff.

We had some trinkets we took with us, sure, but all the objects that accumulate when you live in a place for 10, 15 years?

Nope.

That would have made the move tricky.

So when my father passed away when I was in my early 20s, I didn't have too many possessions of his to remember him by.