A voice-first memoir companion

Your life is a story.
Tell it out loud.

We ask the questions. You answer in your own voice. Your grandchildren will hear you tell it — long after you can no longer tell it yourself.

Record your first memory
No credit card · Five minutes is enough · Keep what you record, always
How it works

No typing. Just talking.

1

We ask a question

Each week, a specific prompt designed to unlock a real memory. Not "tell me about your childhood" — "what did your father smell like?"

2

You answer out loud

In the kitchen, on a walk, in bed. Press record. Five minutes is plenty. Pause and resume whenever.

3

A book and an audiobook

A linen-bound hardback with your transcripts. And an audiobook — in your real voice — for the people who will miss the sound of it.

The recording room

One question. One button.

Thread 01 · Orientation
3 of 3 prompts answered
Prompt 3 of 3
"Why you're sitting down to do this now. Even if the answer is “I'm not sure yet.”"
0:04
Recorded · tap mic to re-record
Saved. 0:04 of you, kept.
Previous Listen back Delete
Finish thread

Built for people who'd rather talk than type

Talk, don't type

Speak naturally. No keyboard, no formatting, no backspacing your way out of a memory.

Your real voice, kept

An heirloom audiobook in your own voice. The accent, the laugh, the pauses.

Gently transcribed

Edited for readability, not for voice. Your phrases, idioms, and "um well anyway" stay yours.

Record anywhere

Mobile app for the kitchen, the car, a walk. Pause and resume. We stitch it together.

Private by default

Encrypted at rest. Only the people you name in your will can listen in fifty years.

Hardback + audiobook

Linen-bound book with photos. Audiobook on USB, app stream, or a QR on the bookplate.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
— Maya Angelou

Getting started is the only hard part.

Five minutes. One question. Your own voice. That's all it takes to begin.

Begin your story
The curriculum

Twenty threads.
One life.

An arc from earliest memories to what you know now — about 26 hours of recordings, told one prompt a week, in your own time.

20
Threads
~175
Prompts
~27h
Recordings

These are just guides.

Talk freely, in your own way. The prompts are starting points — not a script.

Speak from the heart.

Don't pause for the perfect word. Keep going — the unedited version is the one your grandchildren will want.

Order doesn't matter.

Start anywhere. Skip what doesn't speak to you today. Come back to it later, or don't.

The tapestry

The whole journey, at a glance.

Click any thread to step into the studio and start recording.

01~5 min
Orientation
Finding your voice
02~30 min
The turnings
The dates the memoir hangs from
03~90 min
Earliest memories
Fragments more than stories
04~90 min
The family you were born into
Before you chose them
05~75 min
The places that made you
Rooms, landscapes, streets
06~75 min
School and the early world
Outside the family, for the first time
07~100 min
Adolescence
Becoming, in all its noise
08~90 min
Leaving home
Into a life of your own
09~75 min
Money and class
What you grew up with, what you feel
10~100 min
Work and vocation
What you've done with your days
11~100 min
Friendship, love, and the people you chose
The chosen family of adult life
12~100 min
Children, or the absence
A turning, either way
13~75 min
Hands and craft
What you've made or grown
14~75 min
Trouble
Mischief, rule-breaking, scrapes
15~75 min
The body and its history
The vessel you've been in
16~75 min
The wider world
How history broke into your life
17~75 min
Belief and meaning
Questions that stayed with you
18~90 min
Loss and grief
What you've kept anyway
19~90 min
What you know now
The end is the beginning of the telling
20~75 min
Today
Where you are, as you tell it
Or read every prompt in order
Back to the tapestry
The prompts

Every prompt, in order.

Browse the full curriculum at your own pace. Each thread has its own "If you get stuck" guide — tap the pill in the thread header to see helpers for that one.

Thread 01 · ~5 min · 3 prompts

Orientation

A few minutes for the microphone, not for the memoir. Just to find your voice.

  1. 1
    Your full name, where you were born, and when.
  2. 2
    Who you most hope might be listening to this, one day.
  3. 3
    Why you're sitting down to do this now. Even if the answer is "I'm not sure yet."
Thread 02 · ~30 min · 12 prompts

The turnings

A loose timeline of the moments that changed your direction — about a dozen, with rough dates. The thread the rest of the memoir hangs from.

  1. 1
    The earliest big change you can put a date to — what year, what happened?
  2. 2
    A decision in your twenties that shaped everything after.
  3. 3
    A turning point that wasn't your decision — something done to you, or for you.
  4. 4
    The year you became a different version of yourself, and what changed.
  5. 5
    A small moment that turned out to be a hinge — looking back, you can see it now.
  6. 6
    A move (house, city, country) that mattered. Roughly when?
  7. 7
    A loss that became a turning, not just a closing.
  8. 8
    A meeting that became a turning — who, and roughly when?
  9. 9
    A decade that was its own turning — when, and what shape did it have?
  10. 10
    A turning in your work or vocation — when, what changed?
  11. 11
    A turning in love, family, or friendship — when, what changed?
  12. 12
    The most recent turning. Could be last year, could be last month.
Thread 03 · ~90 min · 10 prompts

Earliest memories

The first scenes you can summon — fragments more than stories, but specific.

  1. 1
    The first room you remember. What was on the walls, what was on the floor, where did the light come from?
  2. 2
    The first time you remember being afraid.
  3. 3
    A meal that comes back to you — what was on the table, who was around it?
  4. 4
    The first thing you remember wanting badly.
  5. 5
    A sound from your childhood you'd recognise anywhere.
  6. 6
    A smell that takes you straight back to somewhere specific.
  7. 7
    A toy, blanket, or object that mattered more than it should have.
  8. 8
    The first secret you remember keeping.
  9. 9
    The first time you understood that adults didn't know everything.
  10. 10
    A moment of pure happiness from before you knew the word for it.
Thread 04 · ~90 min · 10 prompts

The family you were born into

The people who shaped you before you could choose them.

  1. 1
    Who was your mother before she was your mother?
  2. 2
    Who was your father before he was your father?
  3. 3
    A grandparent's story — whether you knew them, or only knew the stories about them.
  4. 4
    The sibling dynamic, or the only-child experience: what was the real shape of it?
  5. 5
    A family ritual — Sunday lunch, Christmas, a birthday — and what it actually felt like, not what it looked like in the photos.
  6. 6
    Something the family never spoke about, and why.
  7. 7
    An aunt, uncle, or extended family member who mattered.
  8. 8
    A row that you still remember in detail.
  9. 9
    A moment of unexpected tenderness from someone in the family.
  10. 10
    A family trait — physical, temperamental, or moral — that you carry.
Thread 05 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

The places that made you

The rooms, landscapes, and streets that became part of how you think.

  1. 1
    The house, or houses, you grew up in. Walk the listener through one.
  2. 2
    The street or road you grew up on — the neighbours, the sounds, the rhythm.
  3. 3
    Your school — not the official version, the real one.
  4. 4
    A landscape — beach, forest, fields, street, harbour, mountain — that's part of how you think.
  5. 5
    A place you went to escape.
  6. 6
    A place that frightened you as a child.
  7. 7
    A place you've been back to as an adult, and what had changed (or hadn't).
  8. 8
    A place that doesn't exist anymore.
Thread 06 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

School and the early world

The first world outside the family — and the first time you noticed yourself in it.

  1. 1
    A teacher who mattered, for good or ill.
  2. 2
    A friend whose name you still remember and why.
  3. 3
    The first time you understood you were good at something.
  4. 4
    The first time you understood you weren't.
  5. 5
    An injustice from those years, and what you did or didn't do about it.
  6. 6
    A day you'd live again if you could.
  7. 7
    What you wanted to be when you grew up, and what came of it.
  8. 8
    A first kiss, a first dance, or any first time you felt seen.
Thread 07 · ~100 min · 12 prompts

Adolescence

The years of becoming, in all their tenderness and noise.

  1. 1
    The music that was the soundtrack to your teenage years.
  2. 2
    A risk you took that should have ended worse than it did.
  3. 3
    The first time you fell in love, or thought you did.
  4. 4
    An argument with a parent you still remember.
  5. 5
    Who you wanted to be at seventeen, and who you were.
  6. 6
    The first time you saw an adult as a real person, with their own problems.
  7. 7
    A friend who was a bad influence, in the best way.
  8. 8
    The first time you got truly drunk, or its equivalent — and what you remember of it.
  9. 9
    An older person who saw something in you.
  10. 10
    The first time you understood your parents weren't going to live forever.
  11. 11
    An ordinary Tuesday in your teenage years — what did the day look like, hour by hour?
  12. 12
    The room you slept in as a teenager — the walls, the floor, what was on the bedside table.
Thread 08 · ~90 min · 10 prompts

Leaving home

The first steps into a life of your own making.

  1. 1
    The day you left, or the day you knew you wouldn't.
  2. 2
    The first time you had to fend for yourself.
  3. 3
    The first space that was yours — a flat, a room, a corner of one — and what you put in it.
  4. 4
    A decision you made then that shaped everything after.
  5. 5
    Someone you lost touch with and wish you hadn't.
  6. 6
    A friend who became family in those years.
  7. 7
    A belief you held then that you no longer hold.
  8. 8
    The first proper heartbreak.
  9. 9
    A regular week in your first year of independence — what was the rhythm of it?
  10. 10
    What did you eat for dinner most nights in that first flat?
Thread 09 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

Money and class

The shape of money in your life — what you grew up with, what you learned, what you still feel.

  1. 1
    What you understood about money as a child.
  2. 2
    The first time you realised your family had more or less than someone else's.
  3. 3
    A financial decision that shaped your life.
  4. 4
    Money in your twenties — were you scraping, comfortable, or somewhere in between?
  5. 5
    A time money came easily, and what you did with it.
  6. 6
    A class boundary you crossed, or didn't.
  7. 7
    What you'd want a child or grandchild to understand about money.
  8. 8
    What you believe about money now that you didn't at twenty.
Thread 10 · ~100 min · 12 prompts

Work and vocation

What you've done with your days — for pay, for love, for someone who needed it.

  1. 1
    The first work that asked something of you — paid or unpaid — and what it taught you.
  2. 2
    The work that defined your twenties or thirties — what was it, and what did it ask of you?
  3. 3
    A boss, colleague, or mentor who changed how you saw things.
  4. 4
    A failure at work, and what you did with it.
  5. 5
    A choice between two paths, and how you chose.
  6. 6
    The moment you knew you'd found (or hadn't found) your calling.
  7. 7
    A time you were treated unfairly at work, and what you did.
  8. 8
    Someone you mentored, taught, or supervised.
  9. 9
    What work has cost you, and what it has given you.
  10. 10
    What you'd tell yourself starting out.
  11. 11
    Describe a typical morning at work in your busiest era — from waking to noon.
  12. 12
    The commute, the coffee, the colleague you saw every day — the texture of a working week in your most settled job.
Thread 11 · ~100 min · 12 prompts

Friendship, love, and the people you chose

The people who weren't blood — the friends, the partners, the chosen family of adult life.

  1. 1
    The friend who knew you best at twenty.
  2. 2
    How you met the person you ended up with — or how you didn't.
  3. 3
    A moment when you knew. Or a moment when you knew you didn't.
  4. 4
    The first time you said "I love you" and meant it.
  5. 5
    A friend you made later in life, against the odds.
  6. 6
    A hard season in love or friendship in your thirties or forties — and how you came through, or didn't.
  7. 7
    A small daily ritual that has mattered more than the big moments — with a partner, a friend, a place.
  8. 8
    A love or friendship that didn't last, and what it gave you anyway.
  9. 9
    Someone you wish you'd been a better friend, partner, or lover to.
  10. 10
    The friend you've known longest, and what's kept it.
  11. 11
    What you've learned about being loved — by friends, by partners, by anyone.
  12. 12
    An ordinary Sunday in the middle years of your longest relationship — what did it look like?
Thread 12 · ~100 min · 12 prompts

Children, or the absence of them

A turning, either way.

  1. 1
    The day you found out you were going to be a parent — or the choice not to be.
  2. 2
    One thing a young person in your life has taught you — your own child, a niece or nephew, a godchild, a student.
  3. 3
    A moment of caring for someone younger that you got right.
  4. 4
    A moment you got wrong, and what you did about it.
  5. 5
    A small daily moment with a child in your life you want to remember.
  6. 6
    A worry about a young person that turned out fine — or didn't.
  7. 7
    Watching someone you love become themselves, separate from you.
  8. 8
    A nephew, niece, godchild, or other young person who's mattered.
  9. 9
    What you hope to pass on — to a child, a niece, a godchild, a community — that isn't money.
  10. 10
    The version of yourself you became when someone else's wellbeing started to matter more than your own.
  11. 11
    A regular weeknight when the kids were young — from dinner to bedtime.
  12. 12
    The school run, the packed lunches, the small repetitions of those years — what did they sound like?
Thread 13 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

Hands and craft

What you've made, mended, grown, or shaped with your own hands.

  1. 1
    Something you made or built that you're proud of.
  2. 2
    Something you grew, or kept alive.
  3. 3
    Something you fixed when you didn't think you could.
  4. 4
    A skill someone taught you that you still use.
  5. 5
    A craft, hobby, or pursuit that's been with you for years.
  6. 6
    A creative project that didn't work, and what you learned.
  7. 7
    A tool, instrument, or piece of equipment you've loved.
  8. 8
    The work of your hands as opposed to your head.
Thread 14 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

Trouble

The mischief, the rule-breaking, the times you should have been caught — and the ones you were.

  1. 1
    A prank or scrape you still tell people about.
  2. 2
    Something you did that should have ended worse than it did.
  3. 3
    The teacher, boss, or parent you outwitted — and whether you ever got caught.
  4. 4
    A rule you broke on principle, and whether you'd break it again.
  5. 5
    The accomplice — the friend you got into trouble with — and the trouble itself.
  6. 6
    A piece of nonsense that still makes you laugh out loud forty years on.
  7. 7
    The closest call — a night, a moment, a line you nearly crossed.
  8. 8
    Something the children or grandchildren would never believe you did.
Thread 15 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

The body and its history

The vessel you've been in all this time, and what it has carried you through.

  1. 1
    A childhood illness or injury you remember vividly.
  2. 2
    A time your body did something you didn't think it could.
  3. 3
    A time it failed you.
  4. 4
    Your body in your twenties — what could it do, what did you ask of it?
  5. 5
    A scar and the story behind it.
  6. 6
    An operation, hospital stay, or fragile season.
  7. 7
    How you've felt about your body through the decades.
  8. 8
    What ageing has taught you about being in a body.
Thread 16 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

The wider world

How history broke into your private life, and what you've seen of the world.

  1. 1
    The first time you understood the world was bigger than your country.
  2. 2
    A piece of news that changed how you saw things.
  3. 3
    A place you travelled to that surprised you.
  4. 4
    A historical event you remember exactly where you were for.
  5. 5
    A political belief you've held, and how it's evolved.
  6. 6
    A country, culture, or community that became important to you.
  7. 7
    A moment when the world's noise broke into your private life.
  8. 8
    What you understand about your country now that you didn't growing up.
Thread 17 · ~75 min · 8 prompts

Belief and meaning

The questions that have stayed with you, and the answers you've made some peace with.

  1. 1
    What you believed at twenty.
  2. 2
    What changed it.
  3. 3
    A practice or discipline that's shaped you — faith, sport, art, craft, work.
  4. 4
    A question you've never resolved.
  5. 5
    What you've come to trust.
  6. 6
    A moment that felt larger than itself.
  7. 7
    A piece of wisdom from someone older that's stayed with you.
  8. 8
    A time you were wrong about something important, and what you did with it.
Thread 18 · ~90 min · 10 prompts

Loss and grief

What has been taken, and what you've kept anyway.

  1. 1
    The first death that mattered.
  2. 2
    A loss that wasn't a death — a friendship, a marriage, a home, a self.
  3. 3
    Something you grieved more than you expected to.
  4. 4
    Something you didn't grieve, and noticed.
  5. 5
    How loss has changed what you spend your time on.
  6. 6
    A funeral or memorial that's stayed with you.
  7. 7
    Someone you'd want to say one more thing to.
  8. 8
    A grief that surprised you with how it came, and went.
  9. 9
    Something you've learned about grief from being with someone else's.
  10. 10
    An anniversary you keep, privately.
Thread 19 · ~90 min · 10 prompts

What you know now

The end of the path, which is also the beginning of the telling.

  1. 1
    A piece of advice you actually believe.
  2. 2
    Something you used to be sure of and aren't anymore.
  3. 3
    A small pleasure that's never let you down.
  4. 4
    A regret that's softened with time.
  5. 5
    A regret that hasn't.
  6. 6
    What you'd say to yourself at twenty-five, in one sentence.
  7. 7
    A day from the last year that you'll want to remember.
  8. 8
    What you've come to expect from life, and what you've stopped expecting.
  9. 9
    The one thing you'd want a great-grandchild to know about you.
  10. 10
    The story you want told at your funeral, in your own words.
Thread 20 · ~75 min · 10 prompts

Today

Where you actually are, as you're recording this. The vantage point the whole memoir is told from.

  1. 1
    Describe where you are right now — the room, the chair, what's on the table, what's outside the window.
  2. 2
    What does an ordinary Tuesday look like for you these days?
  3. 3
    What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
  4. 4
    What's on your kitchen windowsill — or your bedside table, or by the door?
  5. 5
    Who do you talk to most this week, and what about?
  6. 6
    What are you worried about this week? Not life — this week.
  7. 7
    What's the last song or piece of music you played for yourself?
  8. 8
    What did you eat yesterday? Breakfast, lunch, dinner — as much as you remember.
  9. 9
    What's the smallest pleasure of your current life?
  10. 10
    If a great-grandchild listens to this in fifty years, what would you want them to know about the day you're recording on?

"Don't aim for perfect. Aim for recorded. A flawed recording in the world is worth a hundred perfect ones still in your head."

Start with thread 01
Your record

Your story, so far.

Everything you've recorded, summed up.

0%
complete

You've answered 0 of 175 prompts.

Total recorded
—
Threads complete
—
Prompts answered
—

By thread

Longest recordings

    Terms & conditions

    The fine print.

    Last updated 13 May 2026

    1. About this service

    My Rich Tapestry is a voice-first memoir companion. We prompt you with questions about your life, record your spoken answers, transcribe them, and help you build a written and audio record over time.

    2. Your recordings are yours

    Your recordings, transcripts, and the personal stories within them belong to you. We will never sell them or share them with third parties for marketing purposes.

    You can export your recordings or permanently delete your account at any time. When you delete your account, your recordings are removed from our servers within 30 days.

    3. How we store your data

    We collect and store:

    • Your email address, for sign-in
    • Your audio recordings and any transcripts
    • Basic usage information (which prompts you've answered, when)

    Your recordings are encrypted at rest. We use Supabase as our data infrastructure provider; data is stored on servers in the Asia-Pacific region.

    4. Pricing

    My Rich Tapestry is currently free to use during early access. We may in future offer paid options — for example, printed books, audiobook production, or extended storage — but you will never be charged without your explicit consent. Any pricing changes will be communicated by email at least 30 days in advance.

    5. What we ask of you

    By using My Rich Tapestry, you agree not to:

    • Use the service to record content that is illegal, infringes the rights of others, or contains personal information of others without their consent
    • Attempt to access, scrape, or interfere with other users' accounts or recordings
    • Reverse-engineer, copy, or resell the service itself

    6. Limitation of liability

    To the maximum extent permitted by law, My Rich Tapestry's total liability arising from your use of the service is limited to the amount you have paid for the service in the 12 months prior to the event giving rise to the claim. We do not accept liability for indirect, consequential, or incidental losses, including loss of recordings due to circumstances outside our reasonable control.

    7. Service availability

    We aim to keep the service available continuously but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. We will give reasonable notice of planned maintenance where possible.

    8. Termination

    You may delete your account at any time. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that breach these terms, with reasonable notice except in cases of serious or repeated breach.

    9. Governing law

    These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand. Any disputes arising from your use of the service shall be resolved in the courts of New Zealand.

    10. Changes to these terms

    We may update these terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email and post the updated terms here, with a new "last updated" date. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

    Contact us

    Questions about these terms? Email hello@myrichtapestry.com.

    These terms are a working draft prepared for early access. They are not formal legal advice and should be reviewed by a lawyer before relying on them for commercial use.