“I recorded it because I thought I was leaving something behind. It turned out to be about knowing each other while we're still here.”Branden, founder, on his Life Story.
For the child who keeps meaning to ask
The stories you'll wish you'd asked for.
Heidi, our Interviewer, gently draws out your parents' life story — they just talk, we do the rest — and turns it into a book your family keeps forever.
Ten minutes. Nothing to install. No card needed.
Buying this for Mom, Dad, Grandma, or Grandpa?
You set it up in two minutes. They get one private link — no password, no app, nothing to figure out.
A story clip
“How did you and Grandpa meet?”
Watch Margaret's story unfold
The photo nobody can explain anymore.
The story Dad tells at Thanksgiving that nobody has ever written down.
The question you keep meaning to ask.
Families don't lose their stories all at once. They lose them one unasked question at a time. This is the easy way to ask — one question at a time.
Why almost nobody does this
You already have everything you need.
You could record Dad yourself. But what do you ask after “Tell me about your childhood”? And what happens to the recording afterward?
Hold Us Together helps with the parts a record button can't: getting started, finding the next question, and shaping the conversation into something your family will actually return to.
It knows what to ask
The follow-up you'd never think of.
It removes the awkwardness
One gentle question at a time.
It's easy for the person who matters most
A private link. No password. Just talk.
My daughter read my story. She understood me more deeply.
“I wish I'd had something like this before my mom died.”A stranger on a flight, after hearing about Hold Us Together
Mom never touches a setup screen.
Three steps. Only one of them is hers, and you can be a thousand miles away.
You handle the setup. She handles the remembering. We handle everything else.
1
You set it up from wherever you are
Add her name, choose when her invitation goes out, and you're done, even if you can't physically be there.
2
She just talks, wherever she is.
Her invitation arrives by email. She opens one private link. No password, no app, no account. Heidi asks one gentle question at a time and follows what she says. She can pause and come back across as many sittings as she likes.
3
Your family keeps it.
Her words become finished books. Her voice and video can be saved. Everything lives in your private Family Room.
So who is Heidi?
Named after the woman who makes strangers feel safe enough to open up.
Heidi is the Interviewer. She is named after the founder's wife.
She has a gift few people have. Strangers tell her their life stories in the grocery-store checkout line. Not because she asks. Because she makes people feel unhurried, heard, and safe enough to keep going.
We built our Interviewer to listen the way Heidi does. One gentle question at a time. Not "tell me about your life." Something like, "Where was the kitchen table and who sat there?" Patient follow-ups, and no rushing past the parts that matter. So your mom can tell the stories you've never heard.
Heidi is guided technology, not a person listening on the other end. Nobody hears your family's stories but your family.
One person. Their whole story. Yours forever.
A professional biographer charges $3,000 to $15,000 and takes months. A phone in a drawer costs nothing and nobody ever watches it. The Life Story is the middle path: a real conversation, finished books, one payment.
Included with every Life Story
The books your family receives
Your loved one talks. We turn their memories into two personal books, with a companion guide for the whole family.
These samples are about Arthur Bennett, a fictional example storyteller. Your first two books will be about the person you choose, with their name on the covers.
Who You Are
Created about your loved one
Their memories and life story, gathered into a book about them.
Read Arthur’s sample
What Shapes You
Created about your loved one
A personal look at their patterns, strengths, and what makes them who they are.
Read Arthur’s sample
Understanding Yourself
Companion guide included
The companion guide that helps the whole family understand the profiles.
Read the sample guideAll three books are included with your Life Story.Receive them as PDFs to read, download, and print at home.
Every family means to stay close. This gives them reasons to reach out.
Every family gathering ends the same way: “We need to do this more often.” Then nobody does.
Every Life Story includes the first year of your private Family Room. Not a folder of files. The place your family keeps coming back to, and the place the small, easy things get sent from. The things that keep a family close.
Family Cards
Some days she wonders whether the family still sees her, or only the nursing home she lives in. So she sends her grandson a video Family Card with one old photo attached: her voice, his childhood face, and the story behind it. The card makes it easy to answer right then, so he taps record and sends her a short video back. He meant to call. He always means to call. For once, she is not the one waiting. She is being answered.
Time Capsules
A father records a message for his daughter’s wedding day — everything he’d want to say, in case he can’t be there to say it. She opens it the morning of, and for three minutes, he’s in the room.
Family Reminders
Some dates should not pass like any other day.
A birthday. An anniversary. The anniversary of a loss. The reminder is not just a notification — it is the quiet nudge to call the person still carrying it, send the old photo, record the short message, or say, “I remember too.”
The Family Tree
A tree that just sits there is a diagram. This one moves.
Every Family Card sent, every Time Capsule sealed, every Life Story saved lands on the name it belongs to — and the branches fill in with faces and voices. A grandchild clicks on a great-grandfather she never met, and hears him tell his own story in his own voice. It stops being a record; it starts becoming a living tree.
There is more in the room: every photo and video, the places your family came from, the stories still being added, and the moments still to come.
See everything the Family Room holds“She told me it meant more than any card she ever got in the mail.”From the founder, after sending his daughter a video Family Card with several of her childhood photos attached — and him singing “Happy Birthday.”
Some stories only come back when you're together. Good Old Days gets siblings, cousins or old friends around one table and one screen. Two hours, two to eight people, $59.
This started in my own family
“When I thought cancer might take me, I interviewed myself so my children and grandchildren would still know my story.”
A guided conversation brought back 53 years of memories, some I hadn't even realized were still there. I thought I was making something to leave behind.
That was the moment this became more than a keepsake. It became a way for families to know each other better while they still have each other.
— Branden, founder of Hold Us Together
A few things you might be wondering.
What if Mom or Dad is not comfortable with technology?
That is one of the reasons this exists. You can set it up from wherever you are, and they can answer from home, a nursing home, or wherever life has them. The experience is simple: one private link, one gentle question at a time. Our team can help if they get stuck.
What if we do not have photos ready?
Start anyway. The story can begin with their words. Photos, videos, names, and memories can be added later inside the Family Room.
Is there a real person asking the questions?
No. Heidi is guided technology, not a person listening on the other end. She asks one gentle question at a time and follows what they share. Nobody hears your family's stories but your family.
Who can see our family's stories?
They are private by default. Only family members you invite can see them, and you decide if you create a share link. You can read our privacy policy for the details.
Can I tell my own story?
Absolutely. You don't have to wait for someone to ask. We can guide you through your own Life Story for the children, grandchildren, friends, or family members who matter to you.
What if we're not ready for the whole Life Story?
Start with one story for free. It takes about ten minutes, needs no card, and gives your family a real story to keep before you decide what comes next.
Still have a question? Ask a real person
Who came to mind?
You don't need a perfect time or a box of sorted photographs. Start with the person whose story you don't want to lose.