Inventory / The Tokens - Christopher Turner 

This article is extremely emotional, I cannot begin to imagine what life must have been like at this point in time. Something that stuck with me when I read the article was "These trinkets are transitional objects––Severed umbilical cords––that embody the grief of separation." This is a melancholy idea yet it is beautiful in a way that there is an everlasting bond between the mother and child. The mothers who are grief stricken have something tying them to their child. I can not compare this article in any way to personal experience however, I can compare it lightly to the idea of separation and what comes with that. Separation is hard to deal with, we all live with a kind of loss or separation from something, for me I have family that live in all corners of the world, that separation, (although it is very different to the idea in Turners article) is hard and I am reminded of that when I am away from them and when I have moments of being with my family, I have to cherish them and after hold the memories close to me. The apartment that I live in now used to be mine and my sister until she moved to New Zealand, throughout my apartment I find small tokens of hers that remind me of our time spent living together, memories are important to us, especially when we have an object that reminds us of someone. When I was younger I used to collect and save my families empty perfume bottles. As a child I loved the small glass bottles to decorate my room with, but what I didn't realize is that when I got older those bottle meant more to me because the bottle still smelled the same, and that scent reminded me of my family members and of times I had spent with them. It is interesting how scent and sound have such a great impact on memory. These small bottles are mementos of my family. 

It is unbearable to thing to think about that these mothers had to give up their child in order for them to live a better life. A better life for the mother and for the child. These mothers had to part with nothing to remember their child by other than knowing that their child had a small token of their own in some way to have a lasting bond with them this is a sad but perhaps hopeful thought that maybe one day they would be able to come back for their chid. Or that the token left with them was somehow a wish for forgiveness when the child got older.