Legacy Stenography
Your Stories. Their Words. A Legacy Preserved Forever.
Every life is a collection of fleeting moments, hard-won wisdom, and deeply rooted love. Too often, those priceless family stories stay locked in aging memories and fading photo albums. We interview your parents or grandparents and transform their lived experience into a beautifully bound, professionally curated hardcover book — a physical heirloom your family will hold onto for generations.
About Me
37 years of listening for a living.
I've spent 37 years as a court reporter — both as an official and freelance stenographer — creating verbatim, word-for-word transcripts for legal proceedings. It's a skill not everyone has: capturing exactly what someone says, in their own words, without losing a syllable of it.
As I got closer to retirement from full-time legal stenography, I realized I could put that same skill to a very different, far more personal use: capturing the memories of people to be shared with the loved ones they leave behind — their childhood, the lessons they learned, favorite family recipes, and the photographs that go with them.
This is something I wish, more than almost anything, that I had done while my own parents were still alive. Legacy Stenography exists so that other families don't have to feel that same loss.
The Process
From conversation to keepsake.
Each book is tailor-made to what your family wants to preserve — there's no fixed script, only a starting point.
We talk about your family
We start with a short conversation with you or your family to shape the questions around what matters most to preserve.
1–5 recorded interview sessions
I sit down with your loved one for a series of hour-long interviews, using predesignated questions from your family or my own guided list.
Verbatim transcription
Every session is transcribed word-for-word, then shaped into a warm, readable narrative in their own voice.
A bound hardcover heirloom
The finished story is professionally curated and printed as a beautifully bound hardcover book — ready to be passed down.
What we cover in the interviews
- Childhood memories
- Their parents and parenting styles
- Youth and adolescence
- Adulthood and family life
- Wisdom and reflection
- Family lineage & family tree visuals
- Pop culture of their generation
- Final words of wisdom for future generations
Packages
Every family's story is different.
These packages are a starting point — every book is tailor-made, and pricing can be adjusted based on session count, copies, and add-ons. (Placeholder pricing — to be finalized.)
Essential
$1,200
A focused keepsake for one chapter of a life story.
- 1–2 hour-long interview sessions
- Verbatim transcription & light editing
- Softcover printed book (1 copy)
- Digital PDF copy included
Legacy
$2,400
Our most popular package — a full life story, cover to cover.
- Up to 4 hour-long interview sessions
- Verbatim transcription & narrative editing
- Hardcover professionally bound book (2 copies)
- Family photo section
- Digital PDF copy included
Heirloom
$3,800
The complete family archive, built to last generations.
- Up to 5 hour-long interview sessions
- Verbatim transcription & narrative editing
- Hardcover professionally bound book (4 copies)
- Family photo section & family tree visual
- Favorite family recipes section
- Digital PDF copy included
Get In Touch
Start preserving your family's story.
Tell me a bit about who you'd like to interview, and I'll reach out to talk through the process and next steps.