I found my father’s measuring tape inside the wall

Dear Delyara, We are renovating the tailor shop my father opened in 1974. He died last year, and my brothers want to turn the front half into a modern clothing store because almost nobody pays for hand-cut suits anymore. While removing a wooden panel today, the carpenter found an old measuring tape trapped inside the wall. My father’s initials were written near the metal tip, and there was a dark mark at forty-two inches where he always folded it between two fingers. I remember him searching for that tape when I was a boy. He accused every apprentice, emptied drawers, checked pockets, and eventually bought another one. It had been less than a meter away from him for nearly forty years, sealed behind the plaster while he measured generations of men for weddings, funerals, first jobs, and second marriages. I wrapped the tape around my own chest tonight. It stopped at the same number he once wrote when making my graduation suit. I have gained weight since then, but the tape has stretched and gives me the old measurement if I pull hard enough. My brothers say we should frame it near the register as decoration. I want to keep it in my pocket and use it, though the numbers have faded and the fabric may tear. I am not ready for my father’s tools to become part of the shop’s history while my hands still remember how he passed them to me.