It was a shipping reconciliation with three handwritten columns: what had been billed, what had moved, and what had been paid.

The final column was crossed out on several lines.

On the reverse, someone had listed locations for storage receipts.

I recognized my father’s writing in the margins, but Joan immediately cautioned that recognition did not authenticate a document.

Celia had retained copies of paperwork when her former office closed.

Some were ordinary records she had been authorized to keep; others might belong to the company, so Joan asked her not to take additional materials or pass along anything confidential without independent legal review.

They spent most of the meeting discussing how to identify original custodians and request certified records.