absolutely reasonable, and may be a good excuse to learn kintsugi, if you still have the pieces.

We don’t get to choose when emotions will take us. This morning I broke down over a Pokémon short because it reminded me someone I love has cancer. They have no connection to Pokémon whatsoever, and I haven’t watched Pokémon in years. It was just a sweet short and it got me going.

If you can find all the pieces, have you heard of kintsugi?

If not, it's a Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, creating something new and beautiful out of the destruction as the cracks become gold veins running through the piece.

Maybe you could find a craftsman or at least experienced hobbyist in your area who could repair it like that?

Sometimes i kiss inanimate objects before i put them in the donation box.

Of course it is. Don't even second guess yourself. You're having those feelings either way, you don't need validation from out here. Grieve your bowl for the lost memories. But they won't really be lost 

I don’t know if this is something available where you live, but Replacements, Ltd. may be able to help you. That’s basically why they exist.

Ya. Material items hold memories and it can feel like losing someone close to you when that item is lost as well. My uncle gave me my grandfathers class ring after he passed and I carry it with me to every sports game I go to.

I totally understand. It's hard to lose something that means more than it's retail value.

I don't think replacing it would help, even if it's identical, it's not really YOUR soup bowl. The search will just waste more time and energy obsessing over the soup bowl. Maybe keep a chunk of the broken bowl and put it away in a keepsake box. Next time you go digging for memories, it'll still have a positive effect.

That's super normal. It's important to remember objects don't have any importance behind what we assign to them. If you still value that relationship maybe you can find a way to preserve it physically like the other commenters have suggested or it may be time to acknowledge that portion of your life is over and this can be symbolic closure. I have a beautiful handmade quilt from an ex-girlfriend and I haven't seen her in almost a decade yet I keep it because the meaning behind it at the time is still important to me

An important thing to remember in these situations: "you cannot control your emotions, but you can control your reaction to them and allow that to shape you in the future"

I like how everyone's glossing over the last part where the boyfriend is 60% of her age.

Absolutely normal and I completely understand. I've gone through the same thing many times with sentimental objects. My spouse on the other hand lost everything they had as a child twice in house fires and carries very little sentimentality over objects as a result. As others suggested I was going to suggest kitsungi. There is a website out there that specializes in replacing matching things like dishes and glasses that are missing from specific sets. I'm sorry I can't think of the name of the site. I heard about it on a podcast with Johnny Pemberton.

I have 2 coffee mugs like that. One my mom got me when I was like 16 to use as a shaving mug. And one I got as a father's day present a week or so after my first kid was born. I'm in my 50's now and have never been sentimental about anything. But I do make sure those two mugs are safe when I put the dishes away.

Yes it's normal We offen have memory's link to objects. Loseing a object does not mean you weaken the memory, you can do actions linked to the memory or create the same link with New a object like painting the new bowl with that memory in mind like colors or places. Painting good or bad doesn't matter as long you like. You can also create new memories build on old ones and continue what is important to you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi