How to Preserve the Memory of Your Parents

Record their stories

While you still can, ask your parents about their lives: childhood, youth, how they met, the hard years and the happy ones. If they're already gone, gather the stories from relatives. A recorded story won't be forgotten and will reach the grandchildren.

Save the voice and the face

The voice is the first thing to fade. Record a few minutes of speech: a favorite saying, a song, an ordinary conversation. Gather and digitize the photos, noting who is in them and when. A face and a voice bring back a sense of presence more strongly than anything.

Gather a family archive

Bring photos, documents, stories and voice together in one place — on a memory page. That way the archive won't be lost when devices change, and it stays available to the whole family, wherever its members live.

Pass it on to your children

Tell your children about their grandparents through living stories and recordings. Let them add their own. That way the memory of your parents becomes a shared family heritage rather than faded photos in a box.

• Ask and record the stories.
• Save the voice and digitize the photos.
• Gather it all in one place.
• Pass it on to children and grandchildren.