<human>: Last week while cleaning the kitchen I came across a dirty kitchen knife that was rusted and charred beyond all practical use. It was in a drawer with a bunch of other knives and I asked my other roommate (not the one with the girlfriend) if he wanted to throw it away. He didn't care and apparently had been using it to smash wasps' nests, so I threw it out.

This morning I got a text from my roommate saying that his girlfriend was looking for that knife and she NEEDS (caps were his emphasis) it asap. He explained it was her last heirloom from her father. I immediately knew I had thrown it out and actually went to the trash can outside to fish out an old bag and dig through it. After dismantling the contents and not finding the knife, I called her and told her what happened in the most solemn and apologetic way possible. She sounded crushed, and I feel like I owe some kind of gesture to her, but I'm not sure what. A card sounds pretty cheesy and I think it would cheapen the heirloom to buy her something else. Does reddit have any advice?

_Edit (from my comment below): Our house has had pretty much a revolving door of roommates for the past 8 years. When I first moved in, I did a lot of cleaning but always asked before throwing anything away, no matter how crappy looking it was. The response was always complete apathy and sometimes gratitude for caring enough to clean up. After a while it felt too repetitive and almost nagging to ask about every little piece of "junk."_

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Condense the text into a few key points
<bot>: I accidentally threw away an heirloom that I thought was junk, and am unsure how to respond other than my apologetic phone call.__