Is There Anything of Your Old Life That You Still Have?

My dad was a high ranking member of the soviet army, and so my mother was very fearful that if we left evidence of our relatives behind, this could be used to prosecute them under commonest rule. So she ordered me to burn all the photos in dozens of albums that went back for a hundred years. And i just obeyed her and set a bonfire in the backyard. What i took instead was my precious stamp collection which survived but moment s of three generations went up in flame. Every time i see my stamp collection now, i think i should have brought the photos.