The Mosaic Charter

How we care for the memories you share

A life is too rich to be told by one voice. That is why every Stella Memoria memorial can grow into a mosaic: a portrait made of many pieces, each one written by someone who knew them — a sister, a neighbour, an old friend from the army. So that you can trust us with something as precious as a memory, these are our promises. They are few, and they are absolute.

1. Your words are yours.

We will never rewrite, shorten, or "improve" what you write. Your memory appears exactly as you gave it, in your own voice, or it does not appear at all. No editor — however well-meaning — can understand your story better than you do.

2. Pieces are whole.

A memory is added to the mosaic complete, or not at all. Nothing is ever trimmed, softened, or taken out of context. We believe a portrait made of true, whole pieces is worth more than a polished one made of fragments.

3. The family tends the mosaic.

The family that creates the memorial chooses which pieces to include — the way you would choose which photographs to frame. They may decline a piece; they may never alter one. If a piece is not included, it still belongs to the person who wrote it, always.

4. The mosaic stays open.

Grief changes with time, and so do the stories we are ready to tell. A piece not included today may find its place in a year, or in ten. A Stella Memoria memorial is never finished — it keeps growing for as long as people remember.

5. We keep everyone safe.

We hold every contribution to a few simple rules: no attacks on the living, no private details about others, no hatred of any kind. That is the only judgement we will ever pass on a memory. What a life meant is not ours to decide.

We built Stella Memoria because we believe no single person — not an editor, not an artist, not even a family — can hold the whole of someone's story. A portrait should remain a mosaic: many hands, many voices, one person lovingly remembered.