The Objects We Keep for Love

Love often arrives in ordinary things: an old voice mail, a bus ticket, a key that opens no door. With Valentine’s Day approaching, readers sent in keepsakes that hold meaning for romantic, familial and platonic love. The responses were poignant, funny, uplifting and sometimes sad; many of the objects began with only a few dollars or no cost at all.

Some items are small and specific: a box of Pearl Harbor business cards, a miniature chair made from champagne wire that recalled the start of a marriage, a jar of cinnamon labeled by a brief pandemic lover, and a dime carried for luck that led to a 40-year marriage.

Others are tactile reminders of a life shared—a pair of ugly winter gloves hiding an engagement ring; size 14 house shoes left where a husband used to keep them; an I.O.U. scrawled by a brother. Everyday objects can hold quieter grief and affection: a tube of metal polish placed on a windowsill, an empty perfume bottle kept in its velvet box, a purple yarn loop that became a talisman against illness.

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