One archive, kept a little at a time.
DearestEllie holds one person's stories, photos, voices, and letters in a single private place. Here is the whole shape of it — there is less to learn than you might fear.
Start the archive
Five short steps: who the archive is about, their name, a few details (dates can stay approximate), what you hope to preserve, and who can see it. Most archives begin as private — just you — and open up only when you choose.
Add a little at a time
Stories, timeline moments, letters, photos, and voice recordings. There is no form to complete and no order to follow: one true detail is enough, and gentle prompts are there for the days you feel stuck. An archive is never unfinished and never graded.
Invite the people who remember
Family and friends add their own memories through a simple link — no account needed to contribute. Nothing they send appears until a steward reviews it, and each telling stays beside the others when memories differ.
Sit with it together
A Life Page gathers the archive into one calm page. Present mode plays it full-screen for a gathering or a quiet afternoon; Reminisce slows it down to one memory at a time, in large type, for sitting with someone whose memory is fading.
Kept safe, and always yours
Private by default, always. Export the whole archive — stories, photos, recordings — free, in open formats, whenever you like. Name a continuity plan so someone you trust can carry it if you ever can't.