How I’m Preserving My Life Story for My Grandson Using Remento

Tracy has always leaned in when someone starts a story, drawn to the small details that show who people really are. Knowing how quietly those details disappear, she doesn't want her grandson left wondering about her. So she's telling her stories now, in her own voice, using Remento.

Recording my life story for my grandson with Remento

It began without much planning. I first heard about Remento through my work with Smart Cremation. When I learned I could fill a book with my own stories, told in my own words, my first thought wasn't about me. It was about my grandson.

"The moment I heard how Remento worked, I thought, 'That's pretty awesome.'"

Children grow up surrounded by the people who love them, yet they rarely get to meet those people as they once were. My grandson knows me as his grandmother. Someday he may wonder who I was before that, what I hoped for, and what made me laugh until my sides hurt. I want him to be able to find out.

If you've ever wondered how a lifetime of memories becomes a book, you can see how Remento works.

Telling my stories with Remento, one question at a time

Each week a new question finds its way to me by email or text, and I answer it when the moment feels right. I talk on video or audio from my phone or computer, the same way I'd tell a story across the kitchen table. Some questions open doors I closed years ago, and a memory I hadn't visited in a long time comes walking back in.

"We all love hearing other people's stories. Now I get to tell mine."

What stays with me is that my family will have more than my words. Remento's Speech-to-Story™ technology turns what I say into written stories and keeps every original recording alongside them. They'll still have my voice, and the laugh that sneaks in halfway through a sentence. My loved ones can send me questions of their own, and I can add photographs to my answers. Little by little, the stories have become something we're building together.

A Remento life story book he can read, hear, and watch

I've recorded about twenty stories so far, and my grandson is the reason I keep going. I imagine him years from now, turning pages and coming across something he never knew about me. Maybe a story will surprise him. Maybe one will sound a little like his own life. Either way, I hope it helps him feel like he knows me.

Every story will be printed in a hardcover book, and each chapter will carry a QR code that leads back to the original recording. He'll be able to read my words on the page, then scan it and hear me tell the story, or watch me tell it, as if I'm sitting right beside him.

For anyone picturing what that might look like for their own family, you can look inside a Remento book.

Preserving family stories with Remento for the generations ahead

Most of us come to treasure family stories at the very moment we realize how many we'll never hear. Photographs hold on to faces, but they keep their secrets. They can't tell us what someone was thinking that day, what made them laugh, or what they carried with them for the rest of their lives. I'd like my grandson to have a few of those answers, straight from me.

"It's an amazing thing to do, and an amazing thing to leave behind."

I won't always be here to answer his questions, but I can answer many of them now, while I can still enjoy the remembering. One day he might open this book, scan a page, and hear me laughing at my own story. If that brings him a little closer to me, every recording will have been worth it.

If there are stories you've been meaning to tell, the ones only you remember, you can start your Life Story Book and begin sharing them in your own voice.