He never stopped learning
As a boy he read books while tending the cow. In retirement he earned a driver's license, learned the computer, and took up Japanese again.
One life, in their own voice
A record for yourself,
a memory your family keeps.
Memories fade. A book remains.
Keeper keeps one life's voice and story as a book the whole family holds.
MEMORY 01The house they grew up in
MEMORY 02Words for the family
❦Private linkNot public and not searchable. Keep the link inside the family.
❦Confirmed words onlyNothing is kept until your parent has read and confirmed it.
❦Edit or stop, anytimeChange or pause the record at any point, before or after the book.
01 · Keeper
The stories can stay. The voice can, too.
Keeper does not write your parent's life for them. It asks, listens all the way through, and records so their way of speaking, and their heart, stay alive on the page. The voice that told the stories is kept alongside, as it sounded.
It does not need to be a remarkable story, and it does not need to be a happy one. A life, lived, is a book.
02 · How a book is made
It starts with talking, and becomes a book.
01
One link
You answer a few questions, and a private link is made for your parent. Send it by text, and you are ready.
02
Your parent just talks
One large-type question at a time. Keeper listens to the whole answer, and keeps only what your parent confirms.
03
The stories become a book
When a life has gathered, it is written into one book, in one voice, from the first page to the last.
04
The family reads it together
Read it together, change what needs changing, and the finished book is printed and delivered to you.
03 · Two languages
For families who read in different languages
Your parent speaks in whichever language is natural. The book can be Korean alone, or Korean and English side by side, so family in Seoul and grandchildren in America read the same book, each in their own language.
한국어
제 이름은 김미영이에요. 아버지는 제가 이름처럼 밝고 환하게 자라라고 ‘밝을 영’ 자를 넣어 주셨어요.
ENGLISH
My name is Kim Mi-young. My father gave me that name with the character for 'bright' (yeong), hoping I would grow up bright and radiant like my name.
04 · A real record from one of our users
Choi Ju-ho put ninety-six years into one book
A real record, made with Keeper: a teacher who crossed occupation, war, and poverty, and gave forty years to the classroom.
Below, turn a few pages of the actual book.
Book previewA few actual pages from the printed book, in Korean. The caption gives the gist.
최주호 · Choi Ju-ho · b. 1930
Ninety-six years, drawn up from one well
『한우물』
Ninety-six years, drawn up from one well
Ninety-six years of memory became
one book, over twelve conversations.
Keeper measures every book against this one.
Prologue: the oldest memories surface first.
Prologue: looking back on a life.
“I was never one to talk big. I did my best in the place I was given, taught the children hard, and always hoped my family would live in harmony.”
Choi Ju-ho, from Hanwoomul
This is how one life settled onto its pages. In your own parent's book, it will be their life, in their words.
He believed in his students
Teaching in a poor mountain village, he saw the spark in his students and made sure poverty never decided how far a child could dream.
His last word to his family
Choose harmony over pride, and love over success. The inheritance he named was a family that loves one another.
To the next generation“Love one another.
That is everything.”
The shortest, deepest testament of a man who crossed ninety-six years.
Shared with the family's agreement. Some names and details were changed.
EARLY ACCESS
Record one life, now.
Early access begins with a short conversation: who we will record, and what you would like at the end. We read every request and reply personally.