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In 2018, as we were departing from a memorial service, a family member took us inside the garage and showed us this trunk. He was extremely excited regarding the few items he found during a cursory inspection of the contents. "It is a capsule of Lyall's life", he told us. The trunk had been sitting at the foot of Lyall's bed for many years, with everything carefully wrapped in newspaper and packed in a very particular manner allowing him to quickly find things. In the center was a little cavity with a box labeled "brand new gifts".
We were asked to become caretakers of the trunk, and we accepted, anticipating that we'd share the experience of exploring the contents with other family and friends via a website. We have preserved the extraordinarily neat packing of the trunk as Lyall left it, and did not discard anything we found so that the rest of the family might have a similar experience sometime in the future in real time.
It was somewhat awkward digging through Lyall's personal things, knowing that he must have cherished them, as evidenced by the fact that he kept them all those years. We hope he'd be happy to know that the trunk will be kept and that all who loved him will find joy in remembering and learning about him as they explore the contents.
