Salvaged memories

SOME were happy discoveries -- a child’s handmade Mother’s Day card, singed around the edges but its essence still intact. Or in Patti Grant’s case, an engagement ring recovered from the rubble. (See photo on Page 1.) More than 2,000 homes burned across Southern California in the last two weeks, and as victims began sifting through the ashes, Times photographer Mel Melcon recorded what they found: the touchstones that miraculously survived, the mementos ruined by the flames. Here are his pictures from one neighborhood, the hard-hit Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego.