My legacy asks what will remain.
Five paths, for five different reasons to write. Each is a set of questions and directions, nothing more; what you make stays on your own device or in your own account, and you decide who receives it and when.
My Story to Keep
For anyone, and written so it works when time is short. You control what is included.
- Before me · family, ancestry, place
- Becoming me · childhood, education, work, relationships
- What mattered · faith, people, causes, joys
- What I learned · lessons, mistakes, wisdom
- What I want you to know · messages to family and friends
- What I leave with you · traditions, recipes, sayings, prayers
- My sources · photographs, letters, documents, recordings
This is legacy reflection and storytelling. It does not treat illness, and it makes no promise about how anyone will feel.
Remembering Someone
Not “move on.” Complete the story of the relationship. Two documents, then one.
- Their biography · childhood, places, relationships, work, traditions, humor, beliefs, events, things they made and taught, songs, recipes, words they used, photos, recordings
- My autoethnography · how knowing them shaped me, what I received, what changed because they were here, what we struggled with, what I carry forward, what I can release, what future generations should know
- Their Story + Our Story + What I Carry Forward
The Life We Shared · The Life I Still Have
For a surviving spouse. The hinge question is not “how do I get over this?” It is: what from our shared life continues through me, and what parts of my own story are still unwritten?
This Is My Life
For memory care. Usually built by a child, spouse, sibling or friend, with the person wherever possible. Two outputs: a family keepsake, and a one-page “Know me” for the people who will care for them. (On the Spanish site this path is called Esta es mi vida.)
- My name
- Where I came from
- My family
- Places I've lived
- Work I did
- People I love
- Music I love
- Food and traditions
- Things that make me laugh
- My faith
- Important memories
- What comforts me
- What I want the people caring for me to know
Consent line to write: “I am building this with, or on behalf of, someone I have the standing to speak for, and I will include their own voice wherever I can.” Music: link to songs for family use; don't republish recordings you don't own.
Make something from it
A song from the Arts frame. A painting of the place in the Geography frame. A poem from the person in Biography. A recipe book from what you leave with them. The story travels with the thing you make, and the thing you make is yours to show. example page · later, opt-in
The printed keepsake later
A finished Story to Keep or a memorial book is a printed object. Empathy Education International can publish a family's book through the same tools that print its guides. Ask when you're ready; it is the one thing on this site that costs money, and it is never required.