Every life knows its difficult moments. One of mine was on October 23rd, 2001, when the doctors in the hospital told me that my mother didn’t have much longer to live. In the weeks that followed, I spent a lot of time trying to handle the prospect of my mother dying. It was an emotional time, filled with feelings of sadness, anger, and despair. The hardest part was thinking about how my future would be – a future without her. She wouldn’t be there at the important moments in my life. She would never see her grandchildren grow up, never see me in my wedding dress. But, even more devastating, I would never be able to ask her all the things I had left to ask. I had so many questions and still wanted to know so much – about her, about me, and about how she had felt at particular moments in her life.

This is why I created a book for her. I realised the truth in the saying: “You don’t know what you have, until it’s gone”. And I realised how precious time is and how little of it we dedicate to the people who matter most. I realised how precious family stories are and decided to
turn my life around. I decided to develop the book into a series of
books and dedicate my time to creating books and concepts that help people capture the stories that matter most. I am deeply thankful that, with the help of great publishing teams worldwide, more than 5 million people are now writing their own stories for their children and grandchildren, with new families joining every day.

My mission is to connect hearts and bring people closer together. I want to thank all of you for your support, letters, and inspiration. I believe we can make the world a better place, story by story.