America asked readers through our email newsletter and social media platforms what they do for their loved ones who have died. Seventy-eight percent of readers described how they memorialize loved ones with photos and other objects. “I remember the people I love with pictures,” wrote Sister Ginger Downey of Huntington, Ind. “[Pictures] of my grandmother are very important to me, and she has been gone almost 40 years. So when people ask, I say, ‘That is my Grandma’ and tell them a little bit about her.”

As the first anniversary of the 2016 presidential election nears, America asked readers about their engagement with politics on the local level. Ninety-eight percent of our reader sample told us that they intended to vote in upcoming local elections—though voter turnout in municipal elections in major cities rarely comes close to 50 percent. “Democracy begins at the local level,” said Gretchen Knapp of Normal, Ill.