Your Voice, Their Comfort

When someone we love passes away, we search for closeness—old photos, heirlooms, favorite shirts, handwritten notes. Anything that keeps us near. A legacy video offers something unique: their voice, their laugh, their spirit captured on film.

At Your Own Story, we’ve seen how much comfort that brings to families. It becomes a sacred object. A source of solace. A way to revisit the person they miss—not just as a memory, but as a presence.

In grief, we often equate the eventual easing of the pain with a fear of forgetting the person: out of sight, out of mind — but that doesn’t have to be the case. Remembering them, what they sounded like, how they told stories, the look in their eye when they smiled, is truly invaluable when the pain of the loss has passed or lightened. A legacy video relieves that fear. It keeps the person vivid. Alive in some way when we’re ready to see them again. And when families watch it together, they often feel the storyteller is in the room with them.

We’ve heard families say, “I felt like I could talk to him again,” or, “It was like she was giving me advice right when I needed it.” That’s what a legacy video can do—it becomes a living extension of the person’s wisdom, humor, and heart.

It also offers emotional clarity. Sometimes, in life, we don’t say everything we mean to. Or we don’t hear everything we wish we had. A legacy video often fills in those blanks. It can give closure, context, or peace. Especially for children and grandchildren who may not have had long or deep conversations with the person before they passed.

That was the case with my grandfather Frank. I had lived my whole life 900 miles from him and only had a dozen or so visits with him in that time. The stories he told me absolved whatever guilt I had felt about not seeing and knowing him as well as I wished, because they were the stories of Frank, not just my grandfather…those stories painted the picture of the man throughout his life and not just in the few years that I also happened to live. His childhood, the world of New York in the 1930s, the things that he was most proud of doing as a man (the six proposals it took to marry my grandmother). His legacy video allowed me to know him as a complex and relatable person, which was far greater than knowing him simply in the grandfather role he previously held in my life.

While we may feel ready to experience our lost loved ones in this way at different points in our grief, as well all grieve differently, there’s also the healing power of shared viewing. Watching the video together as a family opens space for storytelling, laughter, and even tears. It becomes a way to grieve and remember together, rather than in isolation.

And over time, for each of us the video changes in meaning. For a newly bereaved spouse, it might be too raw to watch. But five years later, it may become a cherished birthday tradition. For a grandchild who’s too young to understand now, it may be priceless when they’re older.

Grief evolves. Legacy videos grow with it. They offer a kind of companionship—one that doesn't fade as the years pass, but evolves.

At Your Own Story, I’m humbled to play a small part in helping families hold onto the people they love. Our videos don’t replace anyone—but they do preserve the essence of someone who meant the world to others. And in that preservation, there is comfort. There is continuity. And, most of all, there is love.