What we keep, and what we don’t

The package

A traditional newspaper obituary, made from the questions you answer — a PDF to print and a Word document you can edit. Use it however you want: keep it, share it, or send it to the local paper when you are ready. Papers charge hundreds for those inches. This one is yours. Every question they answered, with the answer they gave — a PDF, a keepsake from these days. Photo pages you print — one photograph to a page, with the words under it. A ten-minute film of those photographs — and a few short clips if they want, up to the package cap. Print the story. Print the questions. Print the photo pages. Watch and save the film. If they name a faith, we keep their words. If they keep a quiet, we keep the quiet.

How long it takes to make

Sit down today. Print and watch tomorrow. About an hour of questions if you skip what does not fit. Sit with them. Hear them. Fill it in. Those answers stay — every question, with the answer, as a PDF. Overnight so family can send photographs from their phones. Tomorrow the traditional newspaper obituary is drafted from the answers, the photo pages are laid out, and the ten-minute film is made from the pictures that arrived. If you already have the photographs, you can print the same night. This is not a week of production and not a film crew.

How long we hold it

While you are still making it, we hold the draft for 14 days. After you pay $99, we keep it open to print and watch for 30 days. Three days before that day we email you so you can save. After that day it is no longer open here, and that night we delete the draft and the photographs. The three sample stories stay. Extra storage is a later phase. You can save the newspaper obituary, the photo pages, and the ten-minute film while it is open. The photo pages PDF — up to 200 photographs — is a download from the package page. It is not emailed. A 200-page file does not travel by email. That is expected. Nothing is wrong.

What this is not

No state requires an obituary. A living obituary is a story a family writes while they are still here. It is not the paper the law asks for when someone dies.

• It is not a death certificate. Only a state office issues that, after a death.
• It is not a notice to creditors. That is a short legal ad an executor runs in a newspaper during probate. A different paper, a different job.
• It is not a will. It does not give anyone money, a house, or a right.
• It is not a hospital chart. Hospital staff do not write this as part of care.
• It is not proof that someone has died. They are still here.
• It is not legal advice. We are not a law firm.
• It is not a funeral. We do not arrange a service, flowers, or a burial.

If a newspaper later prints a death obituary, you already have the words — in Word, so you can change the tense and send them. The family still has to give that paper what it asks for then — usually confirmation of the death. This package is the words and the pictures, ready. It does not replace the state’s record.

They are still here

This story is written in the present. It must never be posted or printed as if they have died. A living person can be hurt by a false death notice — in credit, in work, and in the law. Keep the words “living obituary” on it. When the time comes, the family changes the tense. Not before.

If they can answer, they answer

If they can answer, they answer. If they cannot, write only what you know is true. You are not their lawyer and not the hospital.

A machine helps arrange the sentences

A machine arranged these sentences from the answers. The family wrote the facts. They can change any sentence. The machine does not make a will, a notice, or a death certificate.

You write what is true

The words are yours. Write only what is true. Other living people named in the story can be hurt by a false sentence. Skip a name if they asked you to. You keep the words you write and the pictures you send. We hold them only for the window above.

Names, children, and photographs

A newspaper prints the names you give it. Young children cannot take a public name back. You can write a number instead of a list — “four grandchildren” — if that is kinder.

The person who took a photograph owns it. Send pictures family took, or pictures someone handed you to use. Do not copy a picture off the internet. If this story is about a child, a parent or guardian starts it. We do not turn a child’s photograph into a moving picture of them.

You keep the words and the pictures. We hold them only so the collage can play until the hold date. You can take that leave back.

What never belongs in the story

• A Social Security number, a bank number, a license number.
• A house number or a street of a living person. City and state are enough.
• An illness they asked you not to name. A hospital room they asked you not to show.
• Faith, if they asked you not to name it. Faith and illness are yours to skip.

Those details help thieves more than they help a story. A newspaper does not need them. Neither do we.

The family link

Anyone who has the link can open what you sent. Treat it like a letter you handed someone, not a lock. After you keep the package, the picture link closes. The print-and-watch link stays open until the 30 days are over.

You can hide the family page before the 30 days. Save the files first. You can take the family link down. Hiding it closes the public link. The answers stay in Studio so you can still save them. You can also delete the package. That removes the answers and the photographs. Deleting cannot be undone. If you want the whole account gone, write hello@livingobituary.ai from that email.

What we never do

• We do not sell what you make.
• We do not put it on the public internet unless you send a link.
• We do not copy their voice to sound like them later.
• We do not take medical facts from a hospital chart. You write what you know.
• We are not a hospital. We do not keep a medical record.
• We are not a funeral home, not an executor, and not a lawyer.

Payment

$99, one time, on this phone. That is the memory package. There is no monthly bill. Card pay is Stripe Checkout. Living Obituary never sees the full card number, the CVC, or the magnetic stripe. The $99 is not a tax-deductible gift. Five dollars of your purchase goes back to a charity in your local area. You do not get a tax receipt.

Facility code

A facility code is optional. It tells us which local charity receives the $5. It is not a medical record number. If the QR on the pamphlet does not open, type the code at checkout.

On this phone

On a published site, this phone talks to us over an encrypted connection. Sign-in, answers, and photographs travel that way. Photographs are resized on this phone before they are sent, and location tags in the file are dropped. In our records they are sealed — a stolen copy of the database is not a stolen album. After the hold date the public link goes dark. We do not sell the answers or the photographs. We do not sell a list of families. Sign-in uses a secure cookie on this site. Stripe is the card processor. We never see the full card number.

Your account

Sign-in is Google, X, or email. We keep the email you used so you can come back to the draft. You can take the family link down. You can save the data file and leave. If you want the account gone, write us from that email and we close it.

Colorado privacy

If you live in Colorado you can ask what we hold, ask for a copy, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. We do not sell personal data. We do not use the answers to advertise. A parent or guardian starts a child’s story.

Photographs

Photographs someone picks on a phone, and short films if they are not a child. We do not dump a camera roll. Forty photograph spaces. A short film uses four. While you are making it, family who want to help get a link and pick pictures on their own phone.