Recapturing A Loved One: Alannah Pardy

By Alannah Pardy

 

The story starts 19 years ago when my auntie Michelle was diagnosed with cancer. Although I was just five years old at the time, I saw every piece of heartbreak this horrendous disease caused for my family.

Every year since, my whole family travels up to Co. Donegal for her birthdays and anniversary to celebrate her precious life. We gather around together and share memories we had with her when she was alive. Although my family is still surviving with long-lasting grief, these trips bring so much comfort and support to us all during a still difficult time.

Cancer is a horrible disease, but my Auntie fought it as best as she could. She was an amazing woman filled with joy and even though I was very young I have precious memories of the fun days and the love I shared with her. My little brother and sister never got to meet Michelle and would always ask so many questions about her life, always wanting to know more, always wanting to share in our memories.

I was studying a degree in digital media and marketing and really wanted to create something that would show more of the full person Michelle was. I wanted to capture her unique spark, her personality and beauty. I wanted to create something for my family as a gift from the heart, something that would capture the life Michelle lived and to find something that would again show the beautiful, happy, loving, and kind person she was. This is how RecaptureOne began.

I decided that it would be perfect to capture all the precious memories we had with her and I gathered all photos and videos that we had in the house and created a unique story, her story, to keep my precious auntie’s memory alive. This video story included baby pictures, family pictures, funny pictures, and video that captured her true personality and allowed us to hear her laugh and hear her voice again. It was truly a magical trip down memory lane.

After watching this video and seeing the reactions of my family, I immediately knew this was something I wanted everyone to see and share.

I started to think of ways Michelle’s story could be shown at her grave. I got to work and created my first RecaptureOne plaque. A QR coded memorial plaque that could be attached to your loved ones special place. I put Michelle’s RecaptureOne plaque on her Graveside, but they can be placed anywhere special to you, on a memorial bench, garden, urn, Columbarium Wall, any preferred memorial location.

I waited until the next family gathering at my aunties grave in Donegal and gathered my entire family and friends around the grave to place the plaque. We all scanned the QR code using our mobile phones and celebrated Michelle’s life in a new way. The QR coded plaque allowed us to visualize who Michelle really was whilst at her grave and remember so many memories that many had forgotten.

After seeing their reaction, I knew I had to help bring this experience to so many more families across Ireland. I went to my college and told them about what I had invented and they inspired me to enter the Enterprise Ireland competition. So I did…

I went on to win the Grant Thornton Enterprise Ireland award 2022, which gave me the funding to build my website.

Since then, I have partnered up with multiple funeral directors and headstone engravers around Ireland and hope to help everyone Recapture and tell their loved ones story in a way that a single photo never could.

RecaptureOne QR Coded Multimedia Memorial Plaques provide access to a memory bank of photos and videos with sound that can be viewed by scanning the QR code on the plaque through a mobile device. Each plaque can be password protected and each plaque is telling the unique precious life story your loved one.

For more information about Alannah, you can check out her website.