亡故

亡 = 乚 + 亠 : Willy Walrus (w) just finished digging a grave (亡) for his dead relatives who were killed in the Arctic in the anglepod's kitchen (ang2). Exhausted, he sticks the shovel (乚) in the earth and puts his beret (亠) on it. Finally, he sets up the tombstone (mnemonic symbol for 亡).

亾 = 乚 + 人 : My mnemonic for 亡 is a tombstone, so this ancient variant gets to be a sarcophagus.

Willy Walrus (w) has to bury the Neanderthal man (人) in the anglepod's kitchen (ang2). The Neanderthal man (人) is lying in a half open sarcophagus (亾) next to Willy, and Willy uses a shovel (乚) to dig the grave.

故 = 古 + 攵 : Mnemonic symbol: This character only appears in 做, so we don't need a strong mnemonic symbol. We should be able to refer to 故 when we think of 故事 or 故意. Because it fits nicely to its components, I'll think of it as in the meaning of 故墓, an old grave.

故 = 古 + 攵 : There is an ancient cloister in the space station's bathroom, and Gitta Giraffe once heard a story from her fellow astronauts that there's an old tomb inside with lots of treasure. One day she can't hold herself back anymore and deliberately breaks the cloister open using a sledgehammer.