Our Story

Despite using the latest communication and photo-sharing technology to ‘connect us’, I had never felt more emotionally separated from my parents, my sister and her two daughters.

Timezone differences posed challenges, and our apps seemed better suited for small talk than rewarding conversations.

Communication fell into a regular pattern, often discussing similar topics and rarely exploring anything new. It was pleasant, but I hoped for something more fulfilling to bridge the gap between us.

I worried that I had prevented my parents from fully enjoying their retirement years by distancing them from us and our children. I felt guilty for not being there to support them and my sister’s family in their day-to-day challenges. And I missed the opportunity to share my struggles with them and receive their perspective and emotional support.

I didn’t like being in this situation, but what could I do?! ☹️

Missing out on a more joyful and supportive family life felt like something I had to accept as a cost of living abroad…

Then, in 2019, we experienced a tremendous shock when both my parents faced unexpected and severe health issues.

It was a much-needed reminder about how fragile life can be. No more putting off aspirations for a more interconnected family. Now each day was too precious to waste.

I knew we had to act now and enjoy quality time together while we still could.

Rather nievely, I always thought I had all the time in the world to explore and record my parents’ memories of our family’s past. To learn the stories behind those old family photos.

Now, it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the case.

Despite knowing my parents my entire life, there was still so much I didn’t know about them. Their life history, lessons learned, cooking recipes, and even their tips for stopping slugs from eating a crop of lettuce! On top of that, they were the gatekeepers to stories about our ancestors, extended family, and my childhood…

We would lose EVERYTHING if we failed to act. 😥

This collection of challenges led to our EURIKA moment. 🎉

Family bonding evidently required more than our catch-up calls and sharing photos. So why not step up our conversations by exploring our family’s past and authentic stories from life today, as a way to bond more deeply? By doing so, we’d also benefit from preserving our lives in stories, ensuring our children and grandchildren didn’t miss out!

What an achievement that would be – honouring our family’s past, uniting our family today, and creating a legacy for future generations.

All other goals seemed meaningless in comparison.

Amazingly, there was no obvious home for family stories!

Family stories are well beyond the scope of social media posts or photo albums. Save them in books or on hard drives, and they’ll be forgotten. You could upload documents into the cloud, but this was supposed to be a fun bonding activity, not work!

We knew it should be a private place online, simple enough for the less tech-savvy family members, yet powerful enough to preserve our experiences in all their glory.

Ideally it would be our family’s guide too, as we would appreciate some help along the way. Inspiring us to create great stories and giving us a safe place to store them.

As you might have guessed, such a service did not exist, so we created one for families like ours. 🚀 Unlike other platforms, we wanted our service to be tailored to the needs of FAMILIES, rather than a generic tool for everyone.

Our mission was to help families bond as they preserve their life stories.

We named our creation ‘Simirity’ after the ‘Smriti’ texts which preserved authentic stories about all aspects of life from 2,000 years ago. We hoped that family stories from around the world could last just as long, safely preserved in Simirity.

Since launching, our family has been on a journey of discovery, all of which has been preserved so our children and any future grandchildren have some wonderful records awaiting them! I feel very proud of our back catalogue of stories and wish all families could enjoy this wholesome experience.

We still exchange messages and have regular ‘catch-up’ calls, but now we have something extra that nourishes our relationships and reminds us about our family’s past.

Among the most precious ‘Simirity-inspired’ moments were conversations I had with my Mum and Dad about their childhood and some challenges they’ve faced. I hesitate to refer to them as merely ‘conversations’ as they feel like so much more.

It’s incredible to think that nothing stopped us from having these life-changing interactions before. We didn’t ‘need’ Simirity, but without it, we would have stuck to our regular chit-chats and missed out on so many priceless conversations. I shudder to think what we would have missed.

Simirity nudged us towards exploring our family’s past and asking each other intriguing questions. These new types of conversations quickly became ‘normal’ for us, and we love having them.

🙏 We are so grateful for the messaging apps that keep us ‘connected’, but it’s Simirity that has reinvigorated our family relationships and left us feeling closer than ever.