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
Your parents' story,
before it fades
Memories fade. A book remains.
Keeper keeps your parents' voice and life story for the family.
MEMORY 01The house they grew up in
MEMORY 02Words for the family
❦Family onlyVisible only to the family who holds the link.
❦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 have it printed and delivered as a book.
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
아버지가 제 이름에 ‘밝을 영’ 자를 넣어 주셨어요. 평생 밝게 살라고요.
ENGLISH
My father put the character ‘yeong,’ meaning bright, into my name, so I would live my life brightly.
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 the pages of the actual book.
Book previewThe actual pages of the printed book, in Korean. The caption gives the gist.
최주호 · Choi Ju-ho · b. 1930
Ninety-six years, drawn up from the old well of Hanwoomul
한우물
Hanwoomul
A teacher’s ninety-six years
Choi Ju-ho
온생출판사
『한우물』
Hanwoomul · A teacher's ninety-six years
Ninety-six years of memory became
one book, over twelve phone calls.
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.
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.