Memorial & celebration of life

A memorial memory book everyone helps write

Send one link. The people who loved them add a photo and a story from wherever they are. We lay out every page and print a hardcover book the family keeps.

Start a memorial book See how it works
Free to set up · no payment until you print

The stories the family has never heard

Most of what people remember about someone never reaches the family. A college roommate, a neighbor from three houses ago, the coworker who sat across the aisle for eleven years — each of them holds a piece of the person that no one else has. At a funeral those pieces get spoken once, in a receiving line, and then they are gone.

A memorial memory book is the container for them. Instead of one person collecting photos and retyping stories from texts and voicemails, everyone contributes their own page directly. A guest book asks for a signature; this asks for the memory behind it.

It works whether the service is next week or was two years ago. Some families start a book in the first few days and share the link in the obituary. Others start one on a first anniversary, or a birthday, when people are quietly thinking about the person anyway and are glad to be asked.

An older person's hands held gently in someone else's across a table
Most of what people remember never reaches the family. A memorial memory book is where those pieces land.
How it works

Four steps, and most of the work is not yours

You set it up once. Everyone else does the writing, and the layout happens on its own.

STEP 1

Start the project

Add their name, a cover photo, and the dates. Choose whether the project is public or private, and set a deadline if you have a service coming up.

STEP 2

Share one link

Text it, email it, put it in the obituary or on the funeral home page. Contributors open it, upload up to three photos, and write what they remember. No account, no download.

STEP 3

Memories come in

Each contribution becomes a finished page — photo placement, cropping, and text all handled by the layout engine. You review anything you want before it is included.

STEP 4

Print or download

Download a free PDF, or order a printed hardcover shipped to your door. Order extra copies for siblings, parents, or anyone who asks.

Why families use a memory book instead of a guest book

A guest book records who came. A memory book records what they carry.

It reaches people who cannot come

Distance, health, work, a service on a Tuesday — the people who cannot be in the room can still be in the book, from anywhere in the world.

It takes a contributor four minutes

Three photos and a paragraph, written on a phone, in the moment someone is thinking about it. Nothing to install, nothing to remember a password for.

It gives people something to do

People want to help and do not know how. "Add a page" is a real answer, and gifting toward the printing is a second one.

Nobody has to be a designer

Contributions arrive in every shape — one photo, nine photos, two lines or two pages. The layout engine arranges each one into a page that looks intentional.

It is a real hardcover

A 10-inch square case-bound book with a matte cover and matte interior pages, printed to sit on a shelf rather than in a drawer.

It stays open

A book does not have to close after the service. Reopen the project on an anniversary and print a second volume when there is enough to fill one.

What people write when you ask them well

Contributors do better with a prompt than with a blank box. These are the ones worth putting in your invitation message.

“The first time I met her, and what I thought.”
“Something he said that I still repeat.”
“A photo of us I have never shown the family.”
“What she was like at work, which her kids never saw.”
“The thing he was unreasonably good at.”
“What I would tell her grandchildren about her.”
Pricing

Free to gather. Pay only if you print.

There is no cost to start a memorial project or to collect memories, and no obligation to order a book at the end.

$0

To start and collect

Create the project, invite everyone, and gather photos and stories for free. You only pay if you print.

$34.95

Printed hardcover, 20 pages

A 10-inch square matte hardcover with matte interior pages, plus shipping. Extra pages are $1.25 each.

$1.25

Per gifted page

Friends and family can chip in toward printing — each $1.25 covers one page of the finished book.

Questions

Memorial memory book questions

Do contributors need an account?

No. They open the link, add photos and a memory, and leave an email address so you can reach them. No app, no password, and it works the same on a phone as on a computer — which matters when you are inviting people of every age.

How quickly can we have a book for the service?

You can share the link the day you start the project, and printing takes about 96 hours plus shipping. Many families instead share the link at the service and print afterward, so people who attend can still add their pages.

Can we keep some memories private?

Yes. A project can be public or private, and contributions marked private are visible only to you and the people you invite. You review submissions before they go into the book.

What if someone sends a blurry old photo?

Photos are enhanced automatically on upload — exposure and color are corrected the way a photo editor would. Scanned prints and phone photos from the 1980s come out far better than they go in.

How much does a memorial book cost?

A printed hardcover is $34.95 for the first 20 pages, then $1.25 for each additional page, plus shipping. A 60-page book works out to $84.95. The PDF is free.

Can people help pay for the printing?

Yes. Gift a Page lets anyone give $1.25 or more toward the print cost, which is a common alternative to sending flowers. Contributions apply directly to the book.

Can we order more than one copy?

Yes — most families order several, one for each household. Additional copies are ordered from the same finished book.

Related pages

Other ways families and communities use Memory Booked.

A box of loose family photographs, including an old black-and-white portrait
Contributors add the photos that were never in the family album — the ones only they have.

Start their memory book tonight

Set it up in about five minutes, send the link before you go to bed, and read the first memories in the morning.

Start a memorial book