Geborgen verhalen
About us
Stories That Keep Us Close
The most beautiful stories emerge after a farewell.
Geborgen Verhalen gives those stories a place to live on. Through a QR code on the funeral card or a shared link, family, friends and loved ones come together on a personal memorial page. There, they can share their stories, photographs, voices and videos. All those different memories eventually come together in a personal hardcover memory book, with QR codes linking to the accompanying audio and video.
Thoughtful questions help bring memories to the surface, and stories can be written down or recorded in someone’s own voice. Even those who are less comfortable with technology can simply tell their story while someone else captures it on video.
You tell. We write.
But why are these stories so valuable?
Something struck me at a funeral. After the service, a queue formed in front of the condolence book. When it was my turn, I looked back through the pages. Because what do you write at a moment like that?
My condolences. Wishing you strength. We’re thinking of you.
All sincerely meant. But a little later, over coffee, the real stories began to emerge. Stories brought back to life by the speeches we had just heard.
“That was so typical of her.” “Do you remember when…”
And every now and then, someone would share a story that made the family say: “I never knew that.”
That’s where a life truly comes alive.
Everyone carries a different piece of someone’s story. By bringing all those memories together, a fuller picture of a life begins to emerge.
I know from personal experience just how valuable that can be. I was sixteen when I lost my mother to cancer. Fifteen years later, I still read the memories other people recorded about her. Not only to remember her, but to keep discovering who she was through the eyes of others.
Later, as a nurse, I saw how much meaning a person’s stories can hold.
That is what I want every family to have.
Geborgen Verhalen grew from that idea, inspired by my mother’s family name, Borger. She lives on in the logo too: the lettering comes from her own handwriting, and her fingerprint is incorporated into the design.
Perhaps fifteen years from now, a daughter or granddaughter will take one of these books from the shelf. She’ll read a story she has never heard before and, through the eyes of others, get to know her mother or grandmother a little better.
Just as I still do, fifteen years later.
Don’t let stories get lost. Give them a place where they can live on.