Our Story
Our personal experience inspired us to help people all over the world celebrate
life and embrace death as a part of it. Over a three year period leading up to the
birth of Bcelebrated my husband Mark and I experienced the death of his father,
my grandmother and two close friends, while life threatening illnesses hit three
more loved ones. It was an intense period of grieving, loving, dealing with logistics,
honoring those who passed, and supporting those who triumphed over illness.
One of our friends who died during that period was Robert Huber, a man of integrity,
a dedicated yogi, magical story-teller and effective leader of an environmental
organization. A few weeks before he died I had the honor of visiting him in his
hospital room. He told me about parts of his life I hadn’t known, sharing his sorrows,
regrets and his joys with me.
A few weeks later he was gone. I wasn’t able to be at his memorial. I heard about
the people who spoke, the music he had chosen, and the love letter he left for his
wife which was read by the minister. I wished I had been there. The way he lived
and the way he died were an inspiration to all of us who knew him.
Shortly thereafter, when our friend Charles Campbell mentioned something that occurred
to him in a dream, "Wouldn’t it be great if an email went out to all your friends
when you died?" Mark and I knew we had to create this service to offer others. Not
just an email to notify people and ease the burden on loved ones, but an opportunity
for people to talk about their lives the way Robert had in his last days. To leave
love letters for special people, just like Robert did.
Since few of us have the luxury of knowing when we are going to die, we thought
it would be great to enable people to write about their lives, create private messages,
pick songs and photos that reflect their life, and make their last wishes known,
even when death could be far off in the future.
We were fortunate to surround ourselves with a top notch team; Margaret Floyd, who
was our constant guide through the internet business world, Sam Elmore and his team
of wonderful programmers and designers, who made our dream a reality.
Our hope is that as people write about their lives and leave messages to loved ones,
they will benefit from the reflection, be encouraged to live more inspired lives,
and leave a legacy of hope and inspiration for others. We’d love to hear from you
and know how we can serve you best.
Regards,
Debra Joy
CEO