Retirements and career milestones
A whole career, and everyone has a story about them you have never heard.
The leaving card goes round and everybody writes "Good luck". Ask those same people for one story about the person, and see what comes back instead.
A CV lists the jobs. The people remember the person.
The colleague they trained in their first year. The one they drove to the airport. Their family, who heard about the office every evening for forty years. Each of them knew a different part of the same person.
Ask them for the stories they still tell: the advice that stuck, the habit everyone teased them about, the time they quietly sorted something out for somebody and never mentioned it.
Almost none of it is written down anywhere. Collected together, it is the career as it actually felt.
An illustration with the characters of The Hangover, an affectionate parody not affiliated with Warner Bros
Times he helped someone.
Thank you, Mr. Garner
A neighbourhood restaurant, California · Sid's imagined retirement celebration · 5 people · 15 memories
15 stories
the pen
Linda, Sid's wife · 1982
Sid left for his first day there with a sandwich and a new pen he had bought specially. He came home and told me everyone was very serious and he wasn't sure he'd last. When he packed up his desk last month, he found that pen at the back of a drawer. It had run out years ago. He kept it anyway, and now it's in the kitchen drawer at home, where it also does not work.
my consulting fee
Tracy, Sid's daughter · 1996
When I was about ten, Dad took me to work for the day. I expected something exciting. It was mostly paper. A woman from the next office told me Dad had driven her to the airport once when her car broke down, and then she went back to her desk like that was a normal thing to tell a child. I spent the afternoon stapling things and he paid me two dollars, which he called a consulting fee.
the surprise party
Phil, family friend and reluctant speech helper · 2007
sid's office once tried to throw him a surprise party for twenty five years at the firm. he found out because he was five minutes early, like always, and walked in on them blowing up balloons. he turned around, went back to his car, waited ten minutes and came in again acting completely shocked. doug told me this and i didn't believe him until i saw sid pull the same face at a birthday years later. honestly a better actor than any of us knew.
five minutes early
Linda, Sid's wife · What he's always been like
Sid has never quite trusted being on time. For him, on time means five minutes early, and five minutes early means we should already be putting our coats on. When the children were young I used to complain, but I have to admit that we rarely missed anything. This is the man who'll tell you to relax while checking his watch. Retirement may be quite an adjustment for him. I'm rather looking forward to a Tuesday when we have nowhere to be. I expect we'll still get there five minutes early.
Share a story. A small moment is enough.
Some advice, an afternoon in the garage, and a lawn that waited. Three people, three different proofs that he made time to listen.
How it works
Free to collect. Free to read. No accounts for anyone you invite.
- 1
Start a collection
Give it a name and say who or what it is about. It takes a minute and it is free.
- 2
Send the link
Share it however your group already talks: WhatsApp, a text, an email, or a QR code on the table.
- 3
Everyone adds what they remember
Written down, or simply spoken aloud and written up for them. Photos too. Nobody needs an account; a name is enough.
- 4
Read it together
Every memory, in each person's own words, kept privately for you and whoever you choose to share it with. Collecting and reading is always free.
Questions that help
You don't have to start with a blank page.
Colleagues default to "wishing you all the best". These questions get the stories they actually tell in the pub.
- When did you first work with them?
- What's a moment at work you'll always associate with them?
- What did they do that nobody else noticed?
- What will the place be like without them?
- What's the first thing you remember?
- Was there a moment nobody else noticed?
- What would you never want to forget?
Every question is optional. Anyone can skip straight to writing, or talking.
Questions people ask
Can we invite people who have already left the organisation?
Yes. Anyone with the link can add a memory, wherever they work now. Nobody needs an account or a work email.
Can we keep it from the person retiring until the day?
Yes. Send the link only to the people you are inviting, and ask them to keep it from the person retiring until the day.
Who pays for the finished story?
One person makes a single payment for the whole collection, so a team can simply chip in. Everyone who contributed reads it free.
Does it cost anything?
No. Starting a collection, adding memories and reading them is free for everybody.
Who can see what people write?
Only the people you invite. Every collection is private when it is created, nothing is listed publicly or shown to search engines, and you decide whether contributors can read each other's memories.
Is the finished story written by AI?
Yes, and it is held to what people actually said. It works only from the memories you include, quotes people in their own words, and says so plainly where two people remember something differently. It does not invent events, dialogue or feelings. The original memories are always kept underneath, and you can edit anything before it is shared.
Give them more than a card.
Start a collection, send the link to everyone who has known them at work and at home, and gather the stories of a career.