Our Story

Timezone differences and everyone’s busy schedules made group conversations hard to organise.

We had regular video calls, shared messages and photos, but I still felt emotionally distant from my parents and my sister’s family. The apps we used were more suited to small talk than rewarding conversations.

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

1. I feared I was ruining my parent’s retirement years by distancing them from us and our children. 

2. I felt guilty for not being there to support them and my sister’s family in their day-to-day challenges. 

3. I rarely shared my challenges with them and I missed their perspective and emotional support.

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

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

No more putting off aspirations for a more interconnected family. Now each day was far too precious to waste. 

We needed a better way to spend quality time together online. 

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.

I always thought I had all the time in the world to explore and record my parents’ memories of our family’s past. Now, it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the case. 

Despite so many years together, there was still so much I didn’t know about them, our ancestors, extended family, and my own childhood…

We were going to lose so many precious family stories. 😥

Our challenge was two-fold:

1. Spend more quality time with family online 

2. Preserve precious memories for future enjoyment

Thankfully, they work beautifully together! Preserving precious memories as a family would lead to far more rewarding conversations as we explore our shared past.

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

Preserving family stories as a scrapbook of text, photos, videos and audio is clearly beyond the scope of social media, messaging apps or photo albums. And if you save them in books or as documents in the cloud they’ll rarely get seen! 

So we created our dream solution that weaves family storytelling into daily life. We named it ‘Simirity’ after the ‘Smriti’ texts that contain real-life stories from 2,000 years ago.

We hope your family stories will last just as long 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.