For when the moment's weight makes words impossible.
Tell us who they were. We'll write three distinct, honest portraits of the same extraordinary life, ready to publish within 24–48 hours.
A quiet fifteen minutes. Then we take it from there.
Three portraitsDelivered in 24–48 hoursRefinement includedSatisfaction guarantee
Three portraits. One life.
Most obituaries look the same. Ours don't. Each of the three portraits approaches the same person from a different angle. Different tone. Different emphasis. A different way of telling the truth.
Loretta 'Retta' Voss, 1941–2024
Plainspoken
There are people who build things and there are people who complain. Loretta Voss did both, and did them both well. She opened the Sunrise Diner on Central Avenue in 1974 with eleven hundred dollars and a borrowed griddle, and she never once considered closing it. She worked the morning shift herself until she was eighty-one, when her hip finally made that argument for her. Her regulars did not find out she was sick until she was already gone. That was exactly how she wanted it.
Formal
Retta Voss opened the Sunrise Diner at thirty-three and rebuilt it after a fire six weeks after it burned. She buried two husbands, survived three recessions, and kept a menu that had not changed since 1979 because she saw no reason to fix what people drove across town for. She is survived by her daughter Carla, her son Michael, and approximately four hundred people in Billings who considered her their person without ever telling her so.
Intimate
Every morning for fifty years, Loretta Voss woke up before sunrise to make breakfast for the city of Billings, Montana. She made eggs. She remembered how you took your coffee. She asked about your mother. The Sunrise Diner closes this month, and the people who are sad about it are not sad about the eggs.
Share the memories
Answer a few gentle questions about their life. Takes about fifteen minutes.
We write three portraits
Within 24–48 hours, three distinct portraits of the same life arrive in your inbox, each written in a different tone, so you can choose the one that fits.
Refine and keep
Choose the one that feels right. You have three rounds of refinement over the next 30 days. Download in PDF, Word, or plain text.
Everything included.
$249
- Three complete, publication-ready portraits
- Delivered within 24–48 hours
- Refinement included with every order
- Download any portrait, any time, in PDF, Word, or plain text
If the portraits don't feel right after your refinements, reply to your order email within 14 days of delivery. We'll refund your payment.