A few things I’ll never get rid of. 

Gold Watch

I’m most like my paternal grandmother, I’ve learned. I inherited this watch from her when she passed away, after years of looking for one just like it, despite not having seen it up until that point. I think it’s just plated but it’s my most treasured piece of jewelry. 

 

9-piece Puzzle

My maternal grandmother used to keep me entertained with these puzzles that she’d let me play with on her bed. I don’t know anyone outside of my family who grew up with these, but basically the idea is to line up the pieces in a 3x3 formation so that all of the images accurately connect. It’s tougher than it looks and I never solved one as a kid. When my mom was sorting through her belongings after she’d passed, I asked if I could have one as a keepsake if she happened to come across any. Turns out she had close to a hundred, so I finally solved my first one at 29.

 

Wooden Bowl

The last time I flew to New York, I got an awful email mid-flight and landed in tears. The following morning I decided to go for a solo walk, sort of as an attempt to reclaim that weekend, and I ended up meeting these two lovely women who had a store in the neighbourhood. They gave me herbs from their garden and I bought this bowl, along with two others identical to it in shape but made from different woods. It was a moment of kismet because I was spending the weekend with two couples who were really good friends. I gave them each a bowl and now we all have them in our homes and lovingly refer to them as our friendship bowls.

 

The Most of Nora Ephron 

This was the first book I bought as an adult that I loved and continue to love. I didn’t know who Nora Ephron was at the time (even though I knew all the lines to You’ve Got Mail) but I walked into a bookstore looking for something to read and a really astute salesperson recommended this to me. It shifted the way I looked at words. I think about that salesperson a lot and I wish I could thank her.

 

Lemon

I was down to my last lemon this one time. Because of the pandemic, I try to only get groceries every two weeks. I had about 10 days to go but I use lemons in almost every meal. To avert my very benign but personal lemon crisis, my boyfriend brought me all the lemons from his house. It was at that point that I thought, maybe this was love haha. I guess this lemon doesn’t count as things I’ll never get rid of, but I hope to never forget that story.

 

Patricia Lagmay is a fashion stylist based in Los Angeles. Pictured is the Pouch in Americano.