A dying wish: the companies helping to keep love alive after loss

but did her best to answer before she died in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

In a characteristically un-self-pitying piece for these pages four weeks ago, she explained she was in a race against time, to write a memoir of her life for three-yearold Freddie.

“He’s so young, I’m not even sure he’ll have any memories of me as he grows, but I so wanted him to know me and the kind of person I am,” she explained. “It contains all the stories and the advice that I would have given Fred over the years but won’t be around to do in person.”

In a raw, final article, published less than 24 hours before she died, Rachael revealed that For Freddie was almost finished – along with a stack of birthday presents for him to open until he is 21.

When TV producer Dominic Wolf ’s stepfather died in October, he was devastated he hadn’t captured more memories. On what they weren’t to know was their last evening together, the 60-year-old had started telling his life story “from growing up in Tennessee, to how much he loved my mother”.

Since launching “living letters” video service Roses For December this year, Wolf has filmed hundreds of audio-visual legacies for other people – from terminally ill young mothers to those whose parents have been diagnosed with dementia. Others are completely well, and make their videos in secret, to leave with their wills.

“We have been raised to fear death, to avoid thinking about it,” says Wolf, who is already making regular video diaries of his own for his 18-month-old son, Faelan. “Some people think it’s morbid, but what we witness on a near daily basis is incredible courage and overwhelming love.”