The Father's Day before everything changed, my daughter, Brooklyn, gave me a book. Page after page of questions about my life, with blank lines to fill in by hand.
I started writing. I wanted to do it. But it was slow going. Somewhere in those pages I scribbled a note in the margin:
"I'm looking through this. There are a lot of questions. Feel like I'm back in college writing a huge paper."
I meant it as a joke. I had no idea how much those words would come to matter.
Then I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. For a while, I thought that was the end — that I wasn't going to make it.
A few days after my cancer diagnosis, I was sitting at my desk and saw that book, partially-finished. And it hit me harder than the diagnosis had: I wanted my kids to have my story. All of it. In my own words. But I was exhausted and in extreme pain. I knew there was no way I could fill out the rest of that book by hand. The story I wanted to leave behind was going to die with me.
I believe God's grace and mercy were upon me and I came through major surgery with a positive prognosis — and a hope for the future.
A few weeks after my surgery I decided I wanted to document my life — so my kids and grandkids would know who I was, and could see, through the word of my testimony, the life God had given me.
So I built HoldUsTogether.com. And it's turning into more than just a way to record my story. As I started working on it, I began going through 50 years of photographs and videos — the ones I always told myself I'd sit down and sort through someday. That someday had been coming for about twenty years.
So along with an interview that captures a person's life, I've created a family vault and a family tree — a place where your whole family can see your stories, your photos, and your videos.
I hope you enjoy what I've created as much as I do. And the best part is, my daughter Brooklyn is helping me build it.
Your story belongs to you. Forever.
— Branden, Founder