“Living memory” typically extends three generations backwards from the person remembering. What this typically means is that you remember your parents, grandparents, and possibly some about your great-grandparents, but memories of your great-great-grandparents are probably lost to time if they were not written down somewhere. One method for helping to extend living memory further back through the generations is to attach memories (inherited memories, in this case) to objects. As the object is passed to the next generation, so are the memories which go with the object—now an heirloom.

Some heirlooms last longer than others; some memory-carrying objects never become heirlooms in the first place. But for those objects who manage to carry attached memories forward for generations…. No one is truly dead until there is no one left to remember them.