About Stephanie

For over 40 years, I’ve been an educator—teaching children and adults to love reading, writing, and, most of all, stories. Along the way, I discovered a passion for digital storytelling, creating photo books that turned everyday moments into something lasting and meaningful.

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It all started in the mid-2000s when digital cameras replaced film, and my mom began to complain: “I never see pictures of my kids and grandkids anymore!” She was right. Photos were getting trapped on hard drives and social media, instead of being printed and shared.

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So, I started a tradition: “A Year of a-MAZE-ing Memories.” Every year, I compiled our family’s best moments into a beautifully bound book. At first, I had to scrounge Facebook to find pictures, but soon enough, my family caught on and started sending me photos “for the Book.” (Yes, Book—always capitalized, always important.)

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But my love for preserving memories started long before that.

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When I was a teenager, one of my grandmother’s cousins gathered and published our family history. I was fascinated. I started transcribing family stories at Thanksgiving, asking questions, scribbling down details, and soon, I became the official Family Historian.

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Genealogy became my treasure hunt. I spent years building on my cousin’s work, and in the process, I uncovered gems—like a passport photo of my great-great-grandfather’s brother, the first in our family to come to the U.S. in the 1860s. I had never found a picture of my actual great-great-grandfather, but in my heart, I imagined they looked alike—handsome, distinguished, full of possibility.

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All those stories, all those discoveries, came together in a Family History Photo Book—a collection so beloved that I had to create two more volumes. Seven generations. One growing legacy. And in 2019, it even led to a long-overdue family reunion, where more stories poured out, weaving us all together.

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The Stories That Stay With Us

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One discovery shook me: My grandmother’s birth certificate didn’t list her name as Leonore Elaine, the name she’d gone by her entire life. Instead, it read Lillian Ethel. She had no idea. When she applied for her first passport in her 60s, she had to prove that she was who she had always believed herself to be!

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Her parents were gone by then, so we never found out why the name was changed. But what I do know is that my grandmother would be delighted to learn that her great-great-granddaughter, Leela Leonore, now carries her name forward, keeping her story alive.

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The Power of Photos in Loss and Love

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In 2023, when my mom passed away unexpectedly, my brother spread all the family photo books across his house. As people came to offer condolences, they picked them up, flipped through the pages, and started sharing their own stories about my mom.

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One made me laugh so hard I could hear my mom’s voice in my head:

She and her friend Libby were shopping on vacation when they both reached for the same black woven purse.

 

My mother, who LOVED buying gifts for her family, immediately declared, “Libby, I get this one. The next time we both want something, you get it, and we’ll take turns.”

 

Who does that?! I would have said, “Libby, you take it!” But my mother, especially when it came to purses, had her own way.

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We found that purse after she passed, gave it to Libby, and added that story—along with a picture of Libby holding the purse—to the next year’s family photo book.

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Turning My Passion Into a Calling

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Shortly after, I attended a conference on long-distance grandparenting and learned about The Photo Managers. In an instant, everything clicked:

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📸 My love for storytelling
📚 My experience as a teacher
💾 My passion for preserving memories

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All of it fit together in one perfect calling: helping people tell and protect their stories.

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Your Memories Matter.

Let’s Preserve Them.

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Everyone has photos, but not everyone has the time (or energy) to sort, scan, and organize them. That’s where I come in.

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I can help you:
✨ Sort through the chaos (without the overwhelm!)
✨ Find and preserve old documents (because every detail matters)
✨ Digitize and protect your photos (so they’re safe for generations)
✨ Create custom family photo books (filled with stories that mean the most to you)

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We can do it together, I can do it for you, or we can find a system that works for you to keep your memories organized.

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Your photos tell your story. Let’s make sure they’re preserved, shared, and cherished.

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📩 Ready to turn your scattered memories into a-MAZE-ing Memories? Let’s chat!​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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