These are the things I've saved.

Mission Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
December 20, 2003

• Every e-mail and every chat (filling 17 1-inch notebooks)
• Every e-card
• Photographs
• Postcards
• Letters
• Airline ticket stubs
• Tickets from tourist sites in Egypt and California
• A leather camel from Aswan
• A brass camel from Ma'adi
• A bone camel from Sherm el Sheik
• A clay camel from Sharm el Sheik
• A yellow beach towel from Dahab
• A brass pyramid paperweight from the Cairo Museum
• An "evil eye" protector to be hung from the car rearview mirror, from a vendor in front of the El-Mursi Abul Abbas mosque in Alexandria
• A carved wooden box from a vendor in front of Fort Qaitbay in Alexandria
• A home blessing from the Quran printed on papyrus in Arabic, from the street vendors outside the Cairo Museum
• A statue of Bastet, the ancient Egyptian cat god, from the Cairo Museum
• A set of black alabaster Canoptic jars from Sharm el Sheik, with the heads of the four sons of Horus:

• Duamutef, the jackal-headed god representing the east, whose jar contained the stomach and was protected by the goddess Neith
• Hapi, the baboon-headed god representing the north, whose jar contained the lungs and was protected by the goddess Nephthys
• Imseti, the human-headed god representing the south, whose jar contained the liver and was protected by the goddess Isis
• Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed god representing the west, whose jar contained the intestines and was protected by the goddess Selket

• A cream-colored plate with an ancient Egyptian couple -- I don't remember where we bought it
• A blue and gold-colored plate with the same ancient Egyptian couple -- larger and more elaborate than the cream-colored plate, from Sharm el Sheik
• My 18k gold wedding band
• My half of our Mizpah coin (his daughter currently wears the other half)
• Several perfume bottles purchased in Khan el-Khalili in Cairo
• Several pairs of 18k gold earrings from jewelry stores in Cairo
• An 18k gold pendant with the word "Alhamdulellah" (praise God) written in Arabic, purchased at a jewelry store near Khan el-Khalili in Cairo
• A hand-sewn "camel parade" tapestry, purchased in Aswan
• Several "hijabs" purchased in Cairo
• Arabic music CDs: Hakim, Amr Diab . . .
• The orange cap he's wearing in the above picture, and the pink one I'd bought for myself, from Catalina Island, 26 miles off the coast of Southern California
• A black leather jacket from Cairo
• A white leather jacket from Cairo
• A rock from the Valley of the Kings
• A rock from the Valley of the Queens
• A metal toy Mini Cooper -- blue with a white top
• Several Naguib Mafouz books, translated into English
• The Arabic vocabulary he taught me
• The sound of his voice; his Arabic accent when speaking English
• Voice mails of his final messages to me
• The things he taught me about Egyptian culture and Islam
• A lifetime of memories
• My broken heart and my tears
• His love that continues to surround me, even since his death on January 6/7, 2008