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Stories, Photos, Timelines, Messages and More—Using Tech to Nourish Your Legacy.
Memories of a life are ephemeral, and even though we now have so many tools to record every waking moment, more and more companies are entering the memorial space to help families and individuals gather and organize remembrances, send messages, and create meaningful legacies for generations to come. If you’re looking for ideas to make sharing stories, memories, and messages easier, take a look at the list we’ve put together.
Life Stories, Preserved
Want to learn more about your family’s stories and history? Try Saga is almost like hosting a private family podcast, where you ask questions and your nearest and dearest answer in their own words. Their responses are recorded, securely stored, and shared with those of your choosing. Over time, you can build an audio archive of unearthed memories, epic tales, and silly stories. But Grandma doesn’t have a smartphone, you say? No worries! The platform has been designed to offer low-tech alternatives to those who need them. You can listen, comment, and react to each other’s answers. Note: the Try Saga app is currently only available for Apple users, but you can join the Android waitlist.
For those who are more inclined to share their stores in a written format, here’s a sort of weekly newsletter-style practice that asks a family member questions over time, then collects their answers in a keepsake book (yes, you can buy extra copies to share!). The questions presented over a period of time can make a life story project feel more manageable and can be a great ongoing activity to spark memories and details of a beautiful life. Ideally the StoryWorth process is designed to capture stories from one person’s life, but if you’d like to combine stories from more than one person, you can just purchase additional more subscriptions.
Collecting Video Tributes After a Loss
You know those great video montages you see on talk shows when celebrities shout out fellow celebrities for a birthday or career milestone? Tribute is a website that makes it easy to build a collaborative and dynamic video homage. You can create one for any important occasion, including as a memorial video tribute to a loved one. The process is super simple: first you invite your family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else you’d like. Then they each create their own short tribute video, story or memory, and upload it. The app does the rest, and you can share the final compilation at a family gathering or by posting it online or sending it to whomever you like. A group video tribute can be a great element at a virtual event or an in-person remembrance.
Do Not Reply: Messages from You, After You’re Gone
Like the idea of preparing something privately, to be shared with loved ones only after you’re gone? Lastly might be your thing. Lastly prompts you to create a life timeline, photo galleries, and to gather remembrances of people who were important to the process of you, becoming you. It’s an empowering way to take charge of your own story and legacy, and it gets shared later, on your terms.
Are you organized enough to schedule missives to loved ones (or others!) to be delivered after you’re gone? This messaging app holds recordings, photos and videos until a specified date in the future. You designate a family member to send proof of your death, and once verified, your messages (for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries, or just a random Monday) will be released according to the calendar you’ve created.
“Digital Time Capsule” Legacy Platforms Are All the Rage
This app offers the chance to collaborate on saved memories, timelines and stories, or to work privately on a project. The Memories app offers a space to safeguard your personal legacy for now and for future generations. Their app offers a platform where you can capture your story as well as invite your loved ones to collaborate to create a visual timeline that you can share with family and friends. You can add photos, stories, videos and comments and rest assured that they will be safely preserved for posterity.
Safe Beyond describes itself as a Digital Time Capsule or “Dropbox for the Afterlife.” Through their online platform and mobile app, you can create personalized future messages (written notes, poems, stories, videos, karaoke songs, etc.) for your loved ones. You can filter for a predetermined date, event, location or as a last message that you can schedule to post on social media to individuals, groups of friends, family, or the whole dang world.
A Tip from Our Experts
Whether you’re looking to collaborate with family, record your own life story privately, or pre-schedule messages for a future date, there are an increasing number of online resources available. Whichever platform you choose to keep and share memories, make sure to read the fine print for costs (many of the above services work on a subscription plan) and always review details on how your information is protected.
Let us know if you discover any other digital tools you love. Write us at info@myfarewelling.com. We might just share them with the Farewelling community.
Read More: How to Talk to Your Aging Parents About Dying
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