How Keeper works: from one question to one book

01

The family sets it up in two minutes.

Fill in what to call them, which language they speak, and any topics they'd rather not talk about. You'll get a private link and a short code to send them, and setup is done. To record your own story, start from the same link.

SampleTheir link

keeper.gift/talk/K7P2QM

Their code

K7P-2QM

02

Twelve topics

They follow the order of a life. Within each one, Keeper asks follow-up questions that help bring back details you may have forgotten.

Where were you born? What kind of place was that town?

Here we'll remember where you come from: your parents, your grandparents, and the story behind your name.

Tap to talk Skip this one · Type instead

Each topic opens with a question like this

Where were you born? What kind of place was that town?
When you think of the home you grew up in, what room do you picture first?
How did you get to school each day? What was the way there like?
What was the first work you ever did for money? What do your hands remember about it?
How did the two of you first meet? What do you remember about that first time?
What made you decide to leave Korea? Whose idea was it first?
You can skip this topic.
If you stayed in your home country, A World That Changed takes its place.
What work did you spend most of your life doing?
When you think of your children as little ones, what's the first picture that comes?
Every life has its hard seasons. We can talk about them, or skip this part entirely, whatever feels right today. Would you like to?
You can skip this topic.
When you look back on it all, what are you proudest of?
What's a small thing that still brings you joy these days?
What story would you like to tell today?
The twelfth topic is left open for anything else you want to share.

Three or four topics are already enough for a book.

03

Keeper hears you out, then asks the next question.

One question at a time: Answer one today and continue whenever it suits you.
It catches the detail you almost skipped: The next question comes only after the whole answer has been heard, and it picks up on a detail from that answer.
You confirm every answer: Each answer is shown on screen first, and you can correct it right away.

Built with accessibility in mind

No complicated sign-in, just a secure, private link.
The text is large, and you can make it larger. One thing on the screen at a time.
Speak or type, whichever is easier.
Keeper never pushes you on subjects you'd rather not talk about.

In your words

After a few years the market people knew us, and they would set the good produce aside for us. On the truck home the two of us shared a thermos of coffee, and that dawn coffee was so sweet. Well, it was sweet because I put in so much sugar, that's all.

That's rightFix the words · Say it again

A watercolor of teenage girls walking in a silent line toward a steaming mill chimney before dawn

First Earnings

At fifteen, I left home and went to work at a large textile factory in Busan. The dormitory bell would ring at five-thirty in the morning, and we would rush out after just splashing our faces with cold water. It was still dark outside, but the first thing we saw was the white steam pouring from the factory chimney. The area was called ‘Jobang-ap,’ and though the savory smell of pull-bbang, a type of pastry, filled the main street, I could only smell it as I walked past, saving my money. Hundreds of girls like me walked in a silent line, only the sound of our footsteps on the dark road. Inside the factory, the roar of the machines was deafening, and cotton dust fell like snow. After half a day, our hair and eyebrows would be white. We’d look at each other and laugh, saying, ‘You look like a grandma now,’ and since we couldn't hear each other speak, we talked with hand gestures.

4

04

What the book holds

Two languages: Korean on its own, or Korean and English on facing pages.
Watercolours: Painted to suit each topic.
Photographs: What the family gathers is printed beside the story it belongs to.
The appendix and your voice: The appendix as you typed it, the recordings as printed QR codes.
Editing: You or your family can change, hide, or move any passage.
Print: A printed copy is delivered to your doorstep.