Family Matters began with our own family.
When our mother — Oma to her grandchildren — passed, she left more than a thousand things gathered over a long, love-filled life: cups and bowls, linens and blankets, our father’s beer steins, a cuckoo clock, art, recordings. Twelve of us, across three countries, each deserved a piece of her to hold.
My sister was the executor. We went through every item at our convenience and chose only what each of us truly wanted to keep. She knew exactly which items nobody wanted, which just one person wanted, and which were more contentious. Where two or three of us wanted the same thing, we ran an event for just those people, just those items — and sometimes called each other — and worked it out. Calmly and patiently.
No one fought over what no one wanted. No one felt watched while they decided. And the few genuine overlaps were the only conversations we actually needed to have.
That’s the whole idea behind Family Matters: photograph the belongings, let the app describe each item, invite everyone in free, and let each person mark privately what they treasure — so the only discussions left are the ones worth having. Divide heirlooms, not families.
