What’s one thing you can never throw away … and why? What time, place, person, or experience does it connect you to? What does this thing tell us about you?

On Mementos, everyday people will tell us about a special item and the reason(s) they keep it. In each episode, a thing will become a springboard for exploring and reflecting on memories, experiences, emotions, and relationships.

Mementos grew from my own experience. After my mother passed away, I spent a few months emptying her house of, basically, my family’s entire recorded history. My mother was sentimental, and I was touched by some of the things she kept for so long, such as: receipts from her and my dad’s wedding and honeymoon, get-well cards from my father’s two-month hospital stay in the 1970s, and handmade cards from my older brother’s fourth-grade classmates congratulating her on the birth of my younger brother.

Every memento she saved told me more about her; but the things of hers that I’m keeping now tell me about me and my relationship with her. The first episode of Mementos tells this story.

Originally launched in 1019 with two episodes, Mementos returned in September 2021 with new episodes.

Lori Mortimer