Each button on Laura's memory string represents a piece of her family history. The buttons Laura cherishes the most belonged to her mother's button from her prom dress, a white one off her wedding dress, and a single small button from the nightgown she was wearing on the day she died. When the string breaks, Laura's new stepmother, Jane, is there to comfort Laura and search for a missing button, just as Laura's mother would have done. But it is not the same.
