My son's ex texted me out of the blue because I threw away a cardboard box.

She was like a daughter to me for eight years. Lived with us for four. Then vanished after the breakup. Two years of silence.

Then the text. I laughed. I knew exactly why. Because the day before? I’d thrown away a cardboard box with her name on it.

The box was the last trace of her in our house. My son thought she might want it back someday. Finally I said to him, listen, this box is going. I broke it up for recycling.

The very next morning, her message arrived:

'Hellooooo, thinking of you guys very much...'

She couldn't have known about the box. But somehow, she felt it - that final thread between us being cut.

Some connections run deeper than time or distance.