WANT SOME CLOSURE OF YOUR OWN?

Here’s how to donate to the museum. Head to brokenships.com and fill out the online form. Once you receive instructions by email, write your story and mail your item. Although the donations remain anonymous, the feeling of letting go can be cathartic.

While the relics may not quite hit home for my boyfriend, they force me to think about my own broken relationship—a long-distance romance with a Hemingway incarnate that ended abruptly four years ago. After the initial shock, I packed the ruins of the whirlwind six-month long-distancer—a dried boutonniere, letters written in boyish scribble and 500 green M&Ms (don’t ask)—into a wooden box (which my mother dubbed “a little coffin”) and shipped them to my ex in Boston. I wanted some sort of closure so badly that I even paid for tracking. Had I known about the museum, I would have sent this small emotional legacy to Croatia instead.

Once I’m back home in Toronto, my mind keeps flashing back to the museum—to the plastic hamburger toy, the champagne cork and the nameless, lovesick exhibitionists who sent them in. Just like with a relationship, the feelings linger long after I say goodbye. I guess some of us need to bare our breakups in order to bear them.