Telling Your Life Story Is Good for Your Health. Here’s How to Do It

From DIY memory books to digital options, leaving a legacy doesn’t have to be hard

Megy Karydes,

AARP

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En español

Published August 14, 2024

illustration of a woman in a rocking chair with a book open depicting various moments of her life

Rozalina Burkova

Susan Archibald’s daughter Lauren Archibald knew something about her mother’s work when they were living in Indonesia, but she didn’t know all the details. It was only after Lauren gifted Susan, 65, and now living in Vancouver, Canada, the bookmaking program No Story Lost did Lauren find out interesting tidbits, like how a water buffalo was sacrificed to ward off evil spirits at the opening of a new research facility Susan was involved with.

Leaving a legacy, whether through writing a memoir, creating a scrapbook or capturing memories through an audio or video recording, doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, some people who’ve done it say that the process is even more rewarding than the final product.

And it’s good for your health. A 2023 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that older adults who created digital stories experienced social and emotional benefits from sharing their story with others.

Here is your guide to leaving a legacy based on how you’d like to tell your story.

For those who don’t mind being recorded

It took a cancer diagnosis for Charlie Greene, 32, of Los Angeles, to realize his interest in capturing and preserving memories. He’d lost his father a couple of weeks after his 10th birthday. When Greene’s mother was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer in 2017, he asked her if he could record an oral history with her before she started treatment. The result: a wonderful set of videos.

What he didn’t expect was how much closer together it brought his family during a difficult time in their lives. He also loved learning all his mother’s stories, which helped him see her in a new light.

“For me, that was the real aha moment, which was spending time asking myself, why was it that it took a cancer diagnosis to actually sit down with my mom and ask these questions and to learn more deeply about the moments and experiences that made her who she is today?” says Greene.

But he found the process tedious and difficult, he said, to handle on his own. “I had to pick what to ask, how I was going to ask it, how I’d record, what I’d do with the recording, etc.”

The project inspired Greene to create Remento, a fee-based digital platform that enables storytellers, over the course of a year, to record their answers to prompts submitted by their family members, which get turned into written stories that get printed in a book with a QR code at the start of each chapter so that readers can access the recording.

For those who prefer their stories in written form

Storyworth is another service that uses prompts to generate stories that ultimately end up in a traditional book format. Carol Baby of Dallas, purchased a subscription to the program — which, once a week for a year, emails a question to be answered — for her mother, Aleyamma Baby, 64, after her mother kept talking about wanting to write a memoir of her experiences growing up in India and immigrating to the United States.

“I thought this would be a good introduction, a way for her to just start writing about her life,” Carol says.

The answers were bound into a book complete with images related to the stories her mother had shared.

The process was more rewarding than Carol and her family expected. It was an opportunity for her parents, including her father — who she says is a man of few words — to reflect on their lives.

For her mom, Carol says it was like therapy. Answering the prompts gave her insights into how she’d lived and how her past experiences influenced the way she is today.

Video: Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Writing Your Will

For those who want a DIY memory book

Hope Bertram, 55, of Chicago, created a memory book for her mom and stepdad, then 75 and 76, respectively, after seeing people share stories about loved ones on Facebook after they passed away. She thought, Why not share those stories with them while they’re still alive? Instead of subscribing to a service, she decided to take on the project herself. She asked family members, friends from their temple and people they worked with to send their favorite memory and a picture to create a memory book.

How much do these services cost?

DIY: Cost varies, but expect to spend $10–$50 at a local office supply store
Storyworth: $99
Remento: $99–$168
No Story Lost: $1,099 and up
Journey To Legacy: New offering -- 12-week virtual course with 3 live Q&A sessions, now priced at $397

“When we moved my mom and my stepdad from independent living into the nursing home, my mom was like, ‘Get the book! Make sure you have that book!’ ” Bertram adds.

Her mom was suffering from Alzheimer’s at the time, and Bertram believes the memory book became a comfort for her. “It was really, I think, special to her to look back and see … the pictures and the stories,” she says.

Bertram is planning to do the same with her cousin who will be 92 this summer. This time she is using AI to create questions as a starting point. Bertram plans to make audio recordings of her cousin’s answers that she can then upload to a platform like YouTube (under a private setting) so her family and friends can access them.

For those who want to really dig into how they got to where they are

Chris Armstrong, 72, of Lehi, Utah, spent 17 years as a hospice social worker and would often record her patients and their stories. One day, her son encouraged her to write her own. And so she did, guided by a program from Journey To Legacy that she says allowed her to be more reflective about her life and go deeper into topics and milestones that helped shape who she is.

Journey To Legacy’s programs range in length from 12 weeks to six months. For example, the 12-week virtual writing course guides participants to uncover their life stories through weekly video tutorials, journaling exercises, visualization techniques, live Q&A sessions and the option to join a virtual writing group to share stories and give and receive feedback.

“People often come out of this saying, ‘I feel better about myself. I know now that I do have stories that are worthy of sharing, that my stories matter, that I matter.’ And I think those are huge benefits,” says Joanna Klein, 71, of San Luis Obispo, California, founder and CEO of Journey To Legacy.

For those who want someone else to do the heavy lifting

If your loved one doesn’t have the patience for a weekly prompt or just doesn’t want to take on a project that big, No Story Lost might be a good alternative.

The program has storytellers who guide families through interviews, sometimes even in person, and pull them all together into a book, says Heather DeSandoli, project coordinator at the company.

“We’re really preserving stories, helping family members get to know each other, making sure that, hopefully, families have a keepsake item that they can pass down to future generations,” DeSandoli says.

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Megy Karydes is a Chicago-based contributing writer who covers mental health, travel, gardening and human interest stories. She has written for Architectural Digest, National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, Eating Well and other national publications, and is the author of 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress.

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