<human>: Years ago my mother (who was adopted) gave me a very old photograph of her biological parents - the only one she had.  It was in poor shape and I promised I'd get around to scanning it and cleaning it up.

Well, last weekend I set out to do just that, and I went into the box where I *thought* it has been all this time, only to find it missing.  A days-long, increasingly frantic search has turned up nothing.  I'm beginning to think it got mixed in at some point with any number of scrap paper piles that I recycle on a regular basis.  I'm currently trying to summon up to courage to tell my very sick mother that this photograph might be gone forever.

Give me a shortened version of the text
<bot>: Probably recycled the only surviving photograph of my biological grandparents on my mother's side.  So reddit, what are your lost photograph stories?