A broken tool can explain a life more honestly than a ceremonial portrait.

Wear is a record of what somebody actually did. A handle worn to the shape of a particular grip, a blade sharpened past its useful life, a break mended twice: all of that describes hours, habits and a body. Portraits show how a person wished to be seen, and the tool shows how they spent their days.

Sorting through what someone left, look at the things that were used rather than the things that were displayed. Keep one worn object, and if you can, find out what it was used for. That is a more faithful inheritance than anything on the wall.