Everline: For loved ones with dementia, answered in your voice

A loved one with dementia can call their family members relentlessly, because the reassurance fades in minutes while the worry underneath it stays. Everline gives them one number that always answers, in a family member's own recorded voice. It knows their world because the family taught it: the people they ask after, the garden, the dishes they are proudest of. An extension of you, reaching them in the hours your day cannot. English and Vietnamese today, with more languages on the way.

My sweet mom has dementia and severe anxiety. At her peak she called me more than 50 times a day, crying relentlessly, begging for the suffering to end. I was running a team and could not answer them all, and every missed call meant she panicked alone. I carried that guilt home every night. So I built the thing I could not be, which is there for every call. Everline answers her in my own cloned voice, in Vietnamese because that is her language, and it knows her world because I taught it one line at a time. Her garden, her sister's name, the dishes she cooked better than anyone. To her it is simply me, on a day when I have all the time in the world. Everline gives her company on the first ring. And it gave me back the hours I spent carrying guilt and calling her back at every opportunity I could find, even on the days when it was incredibly hard to listen and also carry her suffering. If you are the person in your family whose phone rings all day because your loved one has dementia, I built this for you too. Glad to answer anything.

The idea of using a family member's own recorded voice is so thoughtful. Glad to see more languages planned, especially since so many caregivers I've worked with have been bilingual.

the idea of using their own family member's recorded voice is really thoughtful, that personal touch is what makes it feel like care instead of just a tool.

The idea of using a family member's own recorded voice is so thoughtful. Glad to see more languages planned, especially since so many caregivers I've worked with have been bilingual.

the idea of using their own family member's recorded voice is really thoughtful, that personal touch is what makes it feel like care instead of just a tool.