Right after we got married 30 years ago, my husband's grandmother died, she was 83 at the time.
I was the only one interested in her craft type things, including her quilts! but that woman and I would have been good friends. She left, way back in the corners of her basement, a scrapbook in which she had things that were important to her in her life. Her first marriage papers and photos, and among other things, the valentines SHE got as a kid. Newspaper clippings from her childhood, and an old handkerchief with no story so we can only guess its importance.
Personally, I think she kept them for those who came after her, and I am honored to continue to keep them