My Experience with Remento (By Natasha Breu)

Natasha wanted to learn about and preserve her grandmother's stories from World War II. She used Remento to explore these stories, using old photos to give greater context to the memories from her Oma's youth. Read her honest review as she used Remento for the first time.

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Memories make us who we are and allow us to reflect on the highs and lows we experience as we develop through the years. We’re constantly documenting events in real-time in this new digital age, but sometimes we want to reflect on the past. So how do we utilize technology to carry memories into the future? This is where Remento comes in. Family is the most precious aspect of many of our lives, and we would do whatever it takes to preserve a grandparent’s voice or decipher the history behind a family heirloom. 

Why I purchased Remento

It was always my goal to document my Oma’s (grandmother) stories of growing up in Germany during World War II, including her witnessing the rise of Nazism and the aftermath. She spoke fondly of the American soldiers who provided her chocolates and gave her warm smiles. I was also particularly interested in her teenage years and the memories behind the gorgeous photos I’d seen of her when I was young. She looked like an absolute movie star and I wanted to know who she was before she got married and started a family.

A lot of her history is in writing but there’s a certain element missing - her character. I wanted to document her stories in a way that didn’t require taking a random video or audio recording just to fade into the depths of my phone storage over time. I thought about scrapbooking but quickly realized I did not have the time nor patience, so that idea didn’t get me far. When I was introduced to Remento, I was excited at the idea of creating a keepsake that would bring together photo, video and audio into a single keepsake. That's why I decided to purchase Remento as a holiday gift for my grandmother.

I knew that Remento would make it easy for my grandmother to leave a legacy behind for her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Coming to terms that a family member is aging is a difficult concept to process. Of course, I’d love to remember everything about her, from her beautiful silver hair to her incredible baked treats. As she lives in Germany and I only get to see her so often, I wanted a way to feel as though I was creating a shared experience with her even when we’re apart. 

Getting started with Remento

Getting started with Remento was easy. Once I provided some basic information about my grandmother, I was able to set a delivery date and customize a gift message for her. And then I began customizing her experience. I uploaded a collection of my favorite photos of her youth, and selected a handful of the questions I found in Remento's question bank that caught my attention.

I was really impressed by how creative many of these questions were - just about all of them were things I would never have thought to ask her, like "Tell me about your favorite room in your childhood home." As I picked these questions, I began to imagine what I might come to learn about her as she answered each one.

My grandmother's first prompt

And then it was time to send my grandmother her first question. I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical that she'd be comfortable recording herself. But to my great delight she had no problem. She received her first prompt as an email and text message, and was able to start recording her response right from her iPad. After she recorded the story, she called me immediately to rave about much she enjoyed the experience. She loved not having to remember a password or download any apps. I was expecting her to record a single story, but she ended up recording a total of three, including recording responses to two prompts she picked herself. She told me she really liked knowing that some of the prompts were from me, but that she could also tell stories she wanted to incorporate into her legacy.

One week later, I was delighted to see that she recorded another three memories. For the first time since downloading Remento, I logged into my account and had a chance to review the written stories Remento's Speech-to-Story technology had created - they were amazing! I was absolutely blown away at how great of a job Remento had done at turning her recordings into beautifully written stories.

A beautiful learning journey

Personally, it’s important to me to document my family’s history as I want to pass on these memories to my future children as technology continues to expand. Leaving behind a legacy for future generations matters because everyone wants to know where they come from and how past experiences shaped them into who they are today. Her Remento Book will forever and always be a way to share her stories for years and years to come, bringing her and indeed all of us together - today and forever.

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About Natasha Breu

Natasha is a freelance writer with a master’s degree in Arts Journalism & Communications from Syracuse University as well as a full-time research analyst in the private investigation industry. She is particularly interested in transforming life experiences into compelling narratives that readers from all generations can relate to. Follow her on Twitter @nnbreu to keep up with her latest work.