Eight weeks, at an easy pace
From the first link sent round the family to the evening everyone opens the portrait, this is what the eight weeks are like.
Anyone in the family can join in
It begins in a private space online, made for your family alone.
The person whose story it is fills in the outline of their life, a few short questions at a time: where they were born, the schools, the moves, the work. Anything they would rather talk about can wait for the conversations.
Children and grandchildren can add to it from one link posted in the family group: a question they would like asked, a memory, or a photograph. It takes a minute, with nothing to sign in to.
A story we mustn't miss, a question, a memory, something she always says, something she taught you, a photograph.
Time to talk
Then we talk: four conversations of 45 minutes over two weeks, each led by the same experienced interviewer, on a video call or by phone, from their own chair at home.
The time goes on how things felt, why they made the choices they did, and the stories the family has asked for. Every question sent in is asked.
A son or daughter is welcome to sit in on the first call and help with the technology. After that, most people like to carry on by themselves.
Writing the portrait
From the conversations, we write the portrait in their own words and their own voice.
A portrait is a selection: the stories that matter most to them, and that they want to share, set in chapters. Leaving things out is part of the work.
Their photographs sit beside the chapters they belong to, and short recordings let the family hear the best moments as they were told. Around each chapter we research the world they lived in: the town, the year, what things cost and what was happening at the time.
You can be frightened every day and not sorry.
Peggy, on her first year in Cleveland
They read it first
When the portrait is written, the person whose story it is reads it before anyone else, and we go through it together on a call.
They can change a line, add something they forgot, or take anything out. Some people want a story told differently; some want one left for another day.
The portrait goes to the family only when they have said they are happy with it.
A portrait to keep
The family receives the portrait online, private to them, to read together and come back to.
Relatives can add a memory or a voice message of their own after reading, and a portrait can link to others in the family as they are made.
A printed hardback book will be delivered after the portrait is finalised.
Private, and always theirs
Only the people the family shares it with. It is protected by a family password, is not listed anywhere, and cannot be found by search engines.
They are used only to make the portrait. The person whose story it is is offered a copy, and the recordings are deleted 90 days after the portrait is delivered, unless they ask us to keep them.
For as long as we exist, at no charge, and for at least ten years. The family can download all of it, the words, the photographs and the recordings, whenever they like.
Whenever suits them
How long it takes
About eight weeks from start to finish. If there is a date that matters, a birthday or an anniversary, tell us and we will plan around it.
As a gift
A portrait suits a milestone birthday, an anniversary, Christmas or Mother's and Father's Day. We send you a card to give, and the conversations begin whenever they are ready. Requests by 23 December can be given for Christmas.
Start with a short conversation
Tell us a little about who the portrait is for. We will arrange a short call to answer your questions, and begin whenever suits them.