Hope you don't mind me posting this in here but after reading what you do, I felt I needed to share some of this and here seems like a good place to do it.
Firstly my Father died 18 months ago from lung cancer. One of his favourite songs that he always use to sing to my sisters and I was 'Love Me Tender' by Elvis. About 3 weeks before he died, I asked him to sing this to us again and so took out my phone and recorded him doing this. I watch back on that video now 18 months since he died and yes it is my Father on the video, but due to the illness taking hold of him, he was not the same man. His voice is not the same and he looked so different and unwell. Suppose what I am trying to say is, I wish that I had a video like this of him before the cancer took control and changed him as a person. If I had thought about it, I would have recorded him in the very early stages when he was more like himself, more like the Father I knew and loved. Had I known about what you do, then I could have arranged for him to do it through your website.
So if someone is in a similar position to what my Father was in, do something like this as soon as you can because I promise you, your sons,daughters, partner, grandchildren will completely cherish having something like the video that I had but let them remember you how you was before any horrible disease takes over. Not meaning to sound selfish, just being totally honest.
My Husband died 4 years ago. It was totally unexpected and he died in his sleep.No chance to say 'goodbye' and came as a huge shock which took me months and months to fully get over and understand. One thing that helped me through it was something that even now I find incredible and almost like a miracle to me. 4 months after he died, my Son was trying to download an app on my mobile phone for me(I am useless with phones). He then told me that I had an unheard voicemail message showing(I had no idea that I even had voicemail set up). My Son passed the phone to me to listen and the voice I heard was that of my late Husband...
"Hi Shazza it's Dave, any chance we can have fish n chips tonight, my treat or are you working late tonight. Anyhow babe, let me know in the next hour and I shall pick it up on my way home. If you don't reply,I know you are working late and will just get some for myself. Love you loads and always will, see ya soon"
Listening to his voice after all that time and being able to listen to this whenever I wanted, was like a miracle. It has helped me so much and has given me something special to remember him by and being able to hear his voice whenever I want has been a great comfort to me.
Again what I am saying to people is that you never know when any one of our friends or family are going to be taken from us so do something like this whilst you can. I am going to be signing up to myfarewellnote today and leaving video messages for my 2 Sons and Daughter because I know only too well, how much this will help them if the worst thing was to happen.
Hope my stories will make people think and thanks for letting me post them on here.
Sharon
Hi everyone. I have my own story which some may find hard to understand and accept but I am sharing it with you anyway. I was an only child and was brought up by my Dad after my Mum died when I was only 4 years old. I had a wonderful relationship with my Dad who was simply amazing,he always put me first and I was extremely spoilt by him and couldn't have wished for a better Dad. When I was 14, he got married to a lovely lady and life continued to be good for us all. When I was 27, my Dad died suddenly of a heart attack which came as a huge shock and was very hard to take. I was actually on holiday at the time so never got to say goodbye to my Dad which is something I still to this day find hard to accept.
1 day after his funeral, his Wife gave me a sealed envelope which she went on to explain was from my Dad and he had told her to give it to me in the event of him passing away.
Inside was a letter that he had written which was dated 2 years before my Mum had died and was signed at the bottom with both his and my Mum's signature.
In this letter, it explained how in fact he was not my biological Dad and went on to explain what had exactly happened with my Mum getting pregnant and how my so called real Dad had dumped her,disappeared out of her life and was never seen again. It also stated the reasons why they had chosen not to tell me the truth and how they had both agreed to write this letter together because they wanted me to know the truth in the end.
To me I understand clearly why they never wanted me to know, because my Dad was worried that it may have changed our relationship but to me he was my Dad no matter what I know even now.
I have told some of my friends the real truth and I have received mixed reactions from them, with some calling my parents selfish and wrong to have hidden the truth from me.
Just thought my story was relevant to what you are trying to achieve and I am happy to receive responses to it. Best of luck with Myfarewellnote which I think is a fabulous idea and will be telling my friends about it. KM55
Holy s**t KM55, that is some story to reveal!
Read it a few times now and it is hard to imagine what was going through your head when you read that letter and you found out the truth about your Father. I was brought up my a Step Father and to me he is always going to be my real Father no matter what because he has always been there for me although I do know who my real Father is unlike yourself.
Surprised your story has not received more replies so thought you were owed a reply. Thanks again and all the best KM55
Came across a tweet from Radio Host James O'Brien that people who follow this topic might be interested in. His young daughter has been using an old mobile phone of his to play games on and it turns out that she has been sending tweets to James's Dad who died 5 years previously. Brought a tear to my eyes reading this.
https://twitter.com/mrjamesob/status/964925309140291592
KM55 - Wow this is truly an incredible story and the outcome certainly wasn't what I was expecting when I read it. I am pleased to hear that the revelation proved to have a positive outcome for you and thank you so much for sharing with us all
SM-Thanks for sharing this info about the tweet that James put out. Some of the replies to it are just as much of a tear jerker as the original story. Much appreciated
What a collection of amazing stories and thought I would post my own as it may be of interest to people reading this topic.
My dear old Dad had a long life and ended up living to the rip old age of 91 whereas my Mum passed away 15 years previously. He was lucky enough to be able to continue living at his house which had been his home for nearly 40 years. After his passing my sisters and I had the task of going through all of his possessions which as anybody who has been through this knows, is a very emotional thing to do and we found ourselves finding things and reminiscing about them such as old photos and even old toys. My Dad use to be a bit of an inventor in his time(although he never made anything famous!).but his enthusiasm for creating new things was something he lived for.
As we were going through some old boxes in his loft, we came across an old dictaphone, one of the ones that comes with mini tapes(yes quite old!). My sister rewound the tape back to the beginning and we had no idea what we were going to hear on it, if anything. She then pressed play and the voice we heard was that of my Dad.
We sat in total silence as we listened to him talking about ideas for things that he wanted to create and make and it made us laugh when at one point he even laughed and remarked to himself "Probably a bloody stupid idea but anyhow". The recordings lasted around 15 mins and by the end of it, we were all shedding a tear and had a sisterly hug at the end of it.
Other than photos of my Dad, this tape is the most amazing thing to have found and I can honestly say that we have all listened to it back on many occasions whenever we have felt the need to.
My youngest Grandchild who is 5 and never got to meet my Dad, even plays the recording and talks to it like a phone and says "Hello Great Granddad" which always make me smile. We have had the recording transferred onto an audio file now just in case it ever got damaged as it is simply one of the most precious things that my Sisters and I now own.
So yes I can totally see the appeal of the service that myfarewell note provides and I shall be signing up and recording something for my family very soon and many other people should think about doing the same. All the best Susan C
Susan C - Thank you for sharing your story with us and what a story it was too. Love the fact that your Grandchildren listen to it which brought a tear to my eyes as I would love to have had something like from my Granddad who passed away when I was only 4.
Can picture my Grandchildren(assuming i have some) doing the same and watching the videos that I have already created for my Wife and family
I am reading this site in Sweden. I lost my wife, the most precious person in the world to me, to cancer last year. For all the photos and videos I have in the world, i wish so much that your app had been around then as I would cherish being able to read messages from her. I think this is great idea and would recommend people do this while they can.
My younger brother Karl died rather unexpectedly 4 years ago and with him not being married and with me being his only sibling, it was left to me to arrange and sort out his possessions and funeral arrangements. For sentimental reasons, I kept many of his personal things which included his mobile phone. It had some lovely photos and videos of him stored on there including the last photo taken of me and him together before he died, so is something that I could cherish and remember him by.
4 months after his death, I was feeling a bit down and went to his mobile phone and switched it on, only to find that 3 voicemail messages were now showing as having been left. I know it was possibly wrong of me to listen to these messages but intrigued and concerned that we had forgotten to tell somebody about his death, Incredibly these 3 messages were from 3 of his closest friends who all knew about his death and were simply voicemail messages left by them to say they were missing Karl and that they wanted to hear his voice again(through his voicemail message). Each message left for Karl were personal between him and each friend but it made cry to think how much his friends were missing him and simply wanted to hear his voice again.
Came across your website last week, saw this forum topic and immediately thought of Karl's voicemail messages and how much his friends wanted to hear his voice again. Just goes to show how leaving a message or video like what you are offering really is so special to some people
Some astonishing stories being posted on here and thank you all for sharing them with us. My story is as follows and hope you enjoy it - My Father died in 1975 and after sorting through his belongings and helping my Mum to rehouse nearer to us, we ended up with a lot of boxes and suitcases that my Mum refused to throw away and said she would sort out at some point. Not surprisingly they ended up in her loft and remained there until after she died in 1987. When it came to sorting through these boxes and suitcases, we unearthed some great old photos amongst ornaments, old diaries, newspapers etc. We also found some old 'cine film' reels and had no idea what was on them. We arranged to get them transferred onto a digital file thanks to the help of my Son and what we found on them was completely priceless to us. There was film footage of old family parties, trips out, my Mum and Dad enjoying life and appearing so happy together. It is something that is so precious for me to have and something that I can show my Daughters and my Grandchildren and can pass onto to them for future generations to see, a real family keepsake
Just wanted to say that these are a really emotional selection of stories but they certainly left me with a warm feeling by the time that I read through them all. It is lovely that people have an opportunity to share these stories with other.They are all very unique but all of which have the same sort of outcome, in that you can feel the pleasure and love that these letters and videos etc have given to people and like someone else described, they are a real priceless keepsake which it just what receiving a myfarewellnote will prove to be.
