A number of months ago, I had dinner at your restaurant with a colleague. (Your pasta was delicious, by the way.) I accidentally left my dark green [brand omitted] backpack there, and when I realized I’d lost it, I was pretty sure that I’d last seen it at your place. Now, my mother bought this backpack sometime in the late-80s, and used it for much of her career as a schoolteacher. I used it for much of high school and all of my undergraduate and post-graduate years. It has earned some sentimental value. I put off contacting you for months because I was terrified that I’d lost it for good and didn’t want to get the final confirmation. When I finally did get in touch, you indicated right away that it was sitting in your Lost and Found bin. I picked it up that day and couldn’t have been more relieved. —I don’t usually feel this way about inanimate objects
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.