Loss can turn an ordinary voice recording into something no amount of money could replace.

Value collapses into strange objects after a loss. A voicemail saved by accident, a bad photograph, thirty seconds of video with the sound of them talking in the background, these turn out to matter more than anything of actual worth. It is because they hold what memory cannot store accurately, the pace and pitch of a person being themselves. Memory drifts; a recording does not.

If someone you love is still here, gather this material now while it costs nothing. Record a conversation, keep a voicemail, film the ordinary rather than the occasion. Nobody has ever regretted having too much of it.