What do you give someone who needs nothing?
Your parents have everything already, or want nothing. What they do not have is an afternoon where someone asks what it was like back then, and listens until the story is finished.
The conversation is the gift. The book is what remains.
You are not giving a box. You are giving your attention, a few conversations, and afterwards a book with their life written down in their own words. It is the one gift that becomes worth more as time passes.
- They have to do nothing but talk
- You do not have to write; we turn it into one continuous story
- The recordings stay, long after the book is on the shelf
So what is in the envelope on the day?
Honest answer: not a book. That only exists once you have had the conversations. What you can give is the announcement and the first set of questions, printed. Then the person receiving it knows straight away what is coming, and you can have the first conversation over the holidays.
Many families do it this way: the card at Christmas, the first conversation in the days after.
How it goes from there
You sit down together
A few conversations, at their place or at your kitchen table. We supply the questions, you supply the curiosity.
We turn it into a story
You upload the recordings. We transcribe them, arrange them and shape them into one continuous life story, in their own words.
The book arrives
Printed or digital, with the recordings there to listen to. From that moment it belongs to the whole family.
Why the holidays work for this
It is one of the few times in the year when everyone is there and there is time. Looking back comes naturally then, and asking what it was like back then does not land on anyone out of nowhere.
Read our questions for Christmas dinnerFrequently asked questions about Abrevity as a gift
Start with one conversation
The rest follows. And that first conversation is often the part families talk about most afterwards.