A letter from our founder
Our story
Playmewhen began with the loss of my father. I was 37, and there were still so many important milestones in my life I hadn’t reached. I wasn’t married yet, and I hadn’t become a father. Although my dad had met the woman who would eventually become my wife, he wasn’t there for our wedding or the birth of my children. There’s a certain kind of pain that comes with experiencing life’s biggest moments without someone you love.
I often think about what it would have meant to have a message from my father waiting for me on my wedding day or when I became a father. To hear his voice, see his expressions, listen to his advice, or even hear one of his jokes. Those little things you don’t always realize you’ll miss until they’re gone. I can’t go back and hear from my father at those milestones, but I wanted to give others the chance to hear from someone they love at theirs. What started as a personal wish gradually became something I felt I needed to bring to life.
As I started my own family, that purpose became even more meaningful. I became a father later in life, and while I hope to be there for every milestone my son and daughter experience, I’ve learned that life happens quickly and doesn’t ask for permission. I want my children to have something I wish I’d had from my father: my words in my own voice, my stories, my advice, my expressions, and yes, even my terrible jokes.
There are things I want to tell my children now, while they’re still young, that they may understand differently when they’re older. Recording those words gives them a way to hear what I was thinking and feeling at this point in our lives. I hope I’m sitting beside them when they press play. But if life has other plans, they will still have a part of me: my voice, my expressions, my stories, and the words I took the time to leave for them.
That’s what I wish I had from my father, and that’s what I want to make possible for others.
That’s why I created Playmewhen.
Pedro Goncalves
Founder, Playmewhen
