In our closing episode of Season Two, we’re joined by Annette Gendler, writer, teacher, and author of How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History. Annette shares the story of her father’s Latin-German dictionary, a well-worn heirloom that has outlived generations and continues to carry meaning far beyond the words on its pages.

This conversation invites us to think about the role of language in family memory, how everyday objects become vessels of history, and why writing about heirlooms can open doors into stories we didn’t know how to tell. Annette also speaks about her workshops, where she guides others in finding and shaping their own family narratives, often beginning with a single cherished object.

As we close out this season of Keepsake Chronicles, Annette’s story reminds us that keepsakes are more than artifacts. They are starting points, invitations to write, to remember, and to connect the threads of the past with the lives we’re living now.

Resources & Links

• Connect with Annette: annettegendler.com
• Learn more about our community: fragilemoments.org/community
• Submit your own keepsake story: nottodaymedia.com/keepsake
• Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

In this episode of Keepsake Chronicles, we sit quietly with Pat Richley-Erickson, genealogist, storyteller, and the gentle voice behind Dear Myrtle. Pat has spent years transforming family heirlooms from mere objects into doorways — creating custom mini-journals that carry the handwritten stories of the ancestors who once treasured each piece.

Her steamer trunk isn't just storage; it's a love letter to the future. Each drawer holds carefully preserved family history, and each object rests beside Pat's own words, ensuring that when her descendants one day choose their heirlooms, they'll also inherit the stories that make those objects sacred.

We talk about the quiet art of pairing memory with matter, why some stories refuse to be forgotten, and how heirlooms can become bridges between the hearts of the living and the love of the gone.

This is a conversation about the weight of memory, the lightness of love, and the profound responsibility we carry when we become the keepers of other people's treasures.

Links & Mentions

* Pat’s work: Dear Myrtle on Substack

* Learn more about our community: fragilemoments.org/community

* Submit your own keepsake story: nottodaymedia.com/keepsake

* Leave a comment about the episode HERE

* Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

* We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

Tracing legacy through the quiet weight of presence

What does a desk remember?

In this deeply reflective episode of Keepsake Chronicles, genealogist and researcher Emma Cox shares a personal story — not found in the pages of history books, but in the wood grain of her grandfather’s desk.

It’s a keepsake that holds his everyday life: letters, ledgers, memories, moments. And in rediscovering it, Emma found a way to sit closer to him, to listen for the quiet details that shaped his story — and her own.

Together, we explore:

* The emotional texture of ordinary objects

* How family heirlooms shape our identity across generations

* What it means to inherit a space, not just a thing

* How genealogy work is, in many ways, a form of listening

This is an episode about presence, patience, and the sacredness of still spaces.

Links & Mentions

* Emma Cox’s work: emmacox.co.uk

* Learn more about our community: fragilemoments.org/community

* Submit your own keepsake story: nottodaymedia.com/keepsake

Listener Reflection Prompt

Is there a space in your life — a desk, a chair, a quiet corner — that once belonged to someone else?

What traces did they leave behind? What stories still live in the silence?

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

Holding the weight of love, war, and what we never knew

There are some objects that don’t just tell a story — they reveal one.

In this deeply moving episode, we sit down with Cynthia Raleigh to explore the unexpected discovery of her father's World War II flight helmet and gauntlets. Tucked away in the attic of her mother’s home, these weathered pieces of leather surfaced decades after the war — relics of a father who flew a P51 over Germany, survived a ground-to-air missile strike, and quietly carried the scars of a story never fully told.

Cynthia shares the moment she found them. The silence that followed. The questions she never thought to ask. And the emotional weight of holding history — not from a textbook, but from the hands of her own family.

Together, we talk about:

* What it means to inherit a legacy you didn’t know you carried

* How silence shapes memory just as much as storytelling

* The way physical objects become portals to the past — and to parts of ourselves

* Honoring the quiet courage of the ones who came before us

This episode is about more than war or keepsakes. It’s about healing, reflection, and the moments that stitch us back to our roots in the most unexpected ways.

Take a breath. Settle in. And listen closely — because this story lives in the details.

Connect with Cynthia Raleigh HERE

If you loved this story, subscribe to Keepsake Chronicles for more intimate conversations about the objects we hold onto and the stories that hold onto us.

Want to share your own keepsake story? We’d love to hear from you. Visit nottodaymedia.com/keepsake to submit your story.

Join our community of curious minds: fragilemoments.org/community

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

What does it mean to treasure something simply because someone before you did?

In this tender and reflective episode, Deborah Carl shares the story of a delicate set of Desert Rose china — not just porcelain, but a piece of family mythology. A young woman — her grandmother — heads west to marry a pilot-in-training before he deploys to North Africa. Along the way, she buys china she’ll ship back across the country… only to learn she could’ve bought it closer to home.

But this story isn’t about convenience — it’s about intention, memory, and how the things we carry with us carry us in return. Deborah, the eldest granddaughter, chose the set of dishes patterned with roses — ones she loved as a child. As an adult, though, it’s the layered stories they hold that matter most.

Join us as we trace the quiet path of legacy through a set of floral china and discover how what’s left behind often says more than what’s spoken aloud.

Connect with Deborah Carl HERE

In This Episode:

* Why her grandmother bought a set of china out west before marriage

* The soft, sometimes silly family stories that become sacred over time

* The difference between what we inherit and what we choose to keep

* How objects become anchors to the people and histories we’re still trying to understand

What happens when the “prettiest” thing in the room turns out to hold the heaviest meaning

If you loved this story, subscribe to Keepsake Chronicles for more intimate conversations about the objects we hold onto and the stories that hold onto us.

Want to share your own keepsake story? We’d love to hear from you. Visit nottodaymedia.com/keepsake to submit your story.

Join our community of curious minds: fragilemoments.org/community

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

What do we do with the stories we were never told?

In this haunting and tender episode, Aryn Youngless shares her journey into a quiet corner of her family’s past — one sealed shut for most of her life. After learning that her grandmother had been disowned, Aryn began the slow, careful work of picking through records, piecing together fragments, and breathing life into a branch of her family tree that had gone still and silent.

With no photographs, no heirlooms, and only the sparse memories her grandmother shared near the end of her life, Aryn stepped into the unknown — and found something much deeper than she expected.

This is a story about fractured legacies, buried histories, and the courage it takes to open a locked door in the house of your past… not knowing what you’ll find inside.

Connect with Aryn Youngless HERE

🧩 In This Episode:

* The emotional weight of family silence

* What it means to be disowned — and how that shapes generations

* Researching ancestry through fragments and official records

* Discovering belonging in the overlooked corners of lineage

* The quiet, powerful pull of curiosity and care

If you found something true in this story — a familiar silence, a remembered feeling, a door you’ve been meaning to open — we hope you’ll stay.

Subscribe for more stories that hold memory, mystery, and meaning.

And if you’re feeling generous, leave a review or share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Donate to the Fragile Moments Community to support our work. Learn more and sign up here.

Share your own keepsake story HERE

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

What if the only evidence of someone’s life was a set of engraved silver spoons?

In this episode, Lisa Maguire shares the hauntingly beautiful story of her great uncle Hugh — a man long forgotten by family memory, with no surviving photographs, no stories passed down… and yet, a quiet legacy that lived on in the form of his craft.

Hugh was an engraver — a maker of delicate, precise, beautiful things. And through the silver spoons he left behind, Lisa was able to trace the faint outlines of his life and rediscover a part of her family’s history that had been locked away for decades.

This conversation explores:

* The mystery of forgotten ancestors

* The emotional power of physical objects

* How the smallest details can hold the biggest stories

* What it means to leave a mark, even when no one is watching

* How curiosity and research can lead us to unexpected beauty in our own family trees

Connect with Lisa Maguire HERE

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Support the show through our Sponsors HERE

Donate to the Fragile Moments Community to support our work. Learn more and sign up here.

Share your own keepsake story HERE

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠

Some people leave behind empires. Others leave behind just one thing, a desk, maybe. Made of wood and sweat and quiet intention.

Connect with Bill Moore HERE

Say hello on ⁠Instagram.⁠

Leave a comment about the episode HERE

Support the show through our Sponsors HERE

Donate to the Fragile Moments Community to support our work. Learn more and sign up here.

Share your own keepsake story HERE

We also make ⁠What's Your Story?⁠ and ⁠Come Back To Earth.⁠