Is a broken keepsake worth keeping?

If it is sentimental to you, then keep it. You will regret it if you throw it away.

My grandma set foot on Ellis Island in 1906. She and my great uncle, and her first child, who was less than a year old and born in Lodz – then under Russian rule, were met by family who had made the voyage earlier. My grandfather came a year later. Family members were already settled in Brooklyn and were there to take her home. I love it.

They all pitched in and bought her a 14 kt gold pocket watch with a diamond chip on the hunter style case. I can imagine her crying when she saw it. Such a gift.

I’ve inherited in, velvet case and all—it has a tiny ding on the front of the case, it’s wrinkles, she wore it on a chain and it probably hit a table or something. It doesn’t tick.

Perhaps it needs a simple cleaning or maybe a more complex bit of work. I own my own working pocket watch, and had it maintained over the years, and it was rather reasonable back home but not here. It would cost over $150 just to check it out.

No matter. It’s a treasure beyond measure.

I wear it like a locket – the front is half moon and tiny star (the diamond),

Even the date it was made thrills me – 1905.

Yes treasures are still treasures even if they are cracked or missing pieces. They are a story. A memory of someone long gone.

I agree with @Headhurts

If something has sentimaental value, it does not need to function or serve a purpose for it to still have that sentimental value.

Grandmother-in-law? meaning husband’s grandmother, I presume? What does he say about it? And are any of grandmother’s children still living? Perhaps one of them would like to keep the items even if you wouldn’t.

Cups without handles can be used for containers for any small objects; pins, beads, buttons, pepper corns, tea bags, nuts, M & M’s…the sky’s the limit. If they are pretty or have any sentimental value, keep them. They certainly don’t take up much space.

I use mugs and tea cups without handles for pen and pencil holders, water glasses for bathrooms, seed holders on my gardening bench, and all sorts of oddments.

If the design works, you could break it and grind the edges to create a whole new keepsake

@Jeruba Oh, great idea. I’ll ask his sister.

@syz I love that choice. I will certainly consider it.

Pitch the cups.

If you’re the only one that’s attached to the keepsakes, and you’re asking the question, then they should go in the trash.

There’s nothing to say that the cups won’t be retrieved from the landfill in 500 years and put on display in a museum. It’s all just “stuff”.

I saw a great article on Lifehacker about what to do with a sentimental object with no use: take a picture and throw it away.

I tried it for a few items of my own and found it to be a rather ingenious solution. Remember, you’re not attached to the object itself but to the memories it elicits. A picture of a beloved yet useless item can serve the same purpose.

I know it is possible to repair china that has parts missing, I guess they rebuild the missing parts and attach them. When we had the Christchurch earthquake here about 3 years ago, a team of china specialists travelled down there from Auckland to collect items that had been broken in the earthquake, that the owners wanted to be repaired. One of the men on the team made the comment that even items with missing parts could be repaired, I filed the information away because I have a beautiful English china vase with a small piece missing from the rim, I plan to do something about it one day.

If you feel any sort of emotional attachment ,don’t throw it away. If only the handles are broken you can at least use it as a Candle holder or you can drill a small drainage hole into the bottom of the cup and pop in an herb plant and place it near your sunny kitchen window.

These are great ideas. Thanks for the suggestions.