Hi,
I recently did the same for the wife of a friend of mine.
It was sad but at the same time I learned things about Gary that I didn't know. He loved comics and pot and junkfood and football.
The pot was in part for his chemotherapy but I padded the walls with football pics and comics and sewed down his favorite hat and a christmas G string he won as a gag gift at a christmas party we were at last year in happier times.
When she got the finished job she (and the 30 other people that showed up to this years christmas party) started to cry and then as people noticed other items (bullets, gummy bears etc.) they started to laugh and talk up good times that things reminded them of.
It is hanging in her house now and next to it a portrait I did of him as well.
In my time framing I have done a few 9/11 pieced containing pieces of the towers. ( I know it is illegal but when a mother tells you this is all she has of her son, and then puts a bucket of debris on your counter, you don't mention that it is illegal to own it)
I did a hinged shadow box so that she could touch the pieces and bring her closer to the things she relates to her sons final resting place.
Sadness goes hand in hand with life and our job is to make everything that walks through our door as beautiful as we can.
At the end of those jobs I felt proud of the work I did and sad for the necessity of it.
I hope this helped and not just brought you down farther. On the brighter side the items they brought to you would have only been sitting in a shoebox if it weren't for you displaying them for all to see, enjoy and remeber.
JB.