A new social media site launched in part by founder and CEO Michael Rowell of Efinancial in Bellevue, will offer a platform to honor the deceased. LifeStory.com, though still in a pilot stage of design, features profiles of family members, loved ones and celebrities who have passed away.
“It offers a way to move these stories forward, to share with other people and to allow peoples’ legacies to live on,” says Shalonne Foster, marketing manager of LifeStory.com.
In its current stage, the site looks a lot like Pinterest. Users can create profiles that are private or public and invite family members or friends to contribute content ranging from old pictures to stories to favorite quotes.
Foster gives the example of her grandmother, who passed away when she was 6 years-old. Though she never knew her, a site like LifeStory.com would offer an opportunity to do so through posted memories, journal entries, even favorite recipes.
“In some ways people can use it as a memorial page. Others as a visual scrapbook,” says Foster. “In my case as a digital cookbook with recipes passed down.”
“We’re not cookers,” she laughs, “and this would be a great place for me to have my aunt or others share them.”
The idea for the site came into being late last year and Foster says there’s nothing else like it. Rowell was inspired in part by the passing of Steve Jobs, a man he says inspired him greatly, but whose death he didn’t know how to grieve.
“There are a lot of places to get out there and to talk about yourself – Facebook, Pinterest – but he wanted to create something that talked about the legacy that people leave behind. To pay tribute to them and honor the regular, every day person that impacts people.”
It’s purpose can be twofold: to help keep someone’s memory alive and to assist in the grieving process. Foster remembers a coworker who passed. LifeStory.com, she says offered a space to share memories for those outside his family, who may not have known him intimately, but grieved the loss just as much.
“This is a place to share that story,” adds Foster.
For more information visit LifeStory.com. Users will be prompted to start a profile or contribute to an existing one.
