How It Works
A question a day, answered in their own words, kept as the story of their life.
After the morning check-in, a second text asks one question about their life. They answer at the link or by text, in a sentence or a page. Every answer is kept exactly as they wrote it, under the part of their life it belongs to.
Fourteen days free. No card to start.
From question to story
The question comes with the morning
A minute after they answer the check-in, one question arrives with a link. Never on a morning they said not today, never late at night, and never while the family is dealing with a missed check-in.
They answer in their own words
The link opens one page: the question and a big text box, nothing else. If it is easier, they text the answer back instead. Both are kept the same way.
It is kept under its topic
Childhood, work, food, the people around them. Nobody edits it and nothing is summarized. Over a year, the topics fill in.
The questions
Eight topics, written by people, not picked by a machine. Each day's question comes from the topic with the least in it, so the story fills in evenly.
Childhood
Growing up, parents, brothers and sisters, school.
Work
Jobs, money, what they did for a living.
Love
Courtship, marriage, the person.
Family and friends
Children, the household, pets, neighbors, the people around them.
Food
What was cooked, holidays at the table.
Making and doing
Crafts, gardens, fixing, building.
The times
The decades they lived through, the music, what was on.
Wildcard
Dreams, what they would do, what they think. Not memory.
One question leads to the next
When they mention a name, a place, or a job, the next day's question follows it: what was Rose like, what happened to the shop. A thread runs while there is something in it and ends when the story is told, or the moment they say they would rather not. A question they leave unanswered is asked once more the next day, and then let go. Nothing nags.
Who taught you to cook?
My aunt Rose, in a kitchen the size of a cupboard. Rose kept a tin on top of the dresser and put something in it every Friday, and every Christmas the tin came down.
The next morning: what was in the tin at Christmas?
The week, on Sunday evening
Every answer from the week goes to everyone in their circle by email, word for word, with the question above it. The same week lands in the archive on the account pages, where it stays.
From a Sunday summary
What did the kitchen smell like on a Saturday morning when you were small?
Bread. My mother baked on Saturdays and there was cardamom in it. I had not thought about that in years.
Everyone in their circle can read it
Follow along
Sunday's email carries the week's answers to every member of their circle, not only the main contact.
Ask something of your own
Anyone in the circle can add a question: how did you and Dad meet, what was the first car. It is asked in its turn and marked as yours when the answer comes back.
Read the whole archive
Every past week, held permanently on the account pages, verbatim.
The book
A year of mornings makes a book: their words, chapter by topic, their name on the cover. A printed edition is on the way. Until then the archive is the book, and it is yours from the first day.
Coming. No date yet, and nothing to buy now.
Their words are theirs
Kept as written
Every answer is stored word for word. We never edit, tidy, or summarize what they said.
Never used for anything else
Their answers are read by their circle and nobody else. They are not sold, shared, or fed to anything that judges how they are doing.
If the account closes
The messages stop that day. Nothing already said is erased; the archive stays exactly as it was.
Start with one question tomorrow morning
Setup takes a few minutes. The first question goes out after their first check-in.
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