About Us

Our Story

Erica and Marina, two cousins, one common wish: collecting and sharing life stories, with the hope that we can all learn something from them.

After our grandparents passed, we realised we had so much we wish we had asked them, we reflected on the conversations we never initiated, and we wish to just have had the opportunity to know more about them, their views, and their life experiences.

We started After All Project in 2020, with the aim of interviewing people who are over 80 years old from all over the world, and share and enjoy their experiences, stories and wisdom. We think it is important that we stop and listen to what our elders have to say: they have lived the longest, and they have plenty of experience behind them.
We shall sit, listen, and pay their voices the attention they deserve.

We see this project as an opportunity for people to connect with their parents and grandparents, or with friends or strangers, and discover their life’s lessons and stories.

After All Project started with interviews we made while visiting our friends’ granparents, or people over 80s we knew, in the confort of their homes. As we wanted to reach further afield, with Covid ongoing, we began using video conferencing apps to conduct interviews with elders in far away places.

We soon realised that these interviews could be a powerful tool, through which people can learn valuable life lessons while getting to know their grandparents and elders better.

We began reaching out to our communities seeking connection with their elders, asking them to be part of this project.
We received amazing, heartfelt stories that moved us and motivated us to search for collaborators around the world to interview their elders.

The interviews we have collected so far have taught us so much. They have made us reflect and shifted our perspective. We are filled with gratitude for the privilege of collecting and sharing these precious stories (stay tuned!).

We are looking forward for all the participants and stories to come.

About Us

Erica Westmore and Marina Araki, are cousins that grew up in Italy.

Erica lives in Varese, Italy, and Marina lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Our family is global mix of Italian, English, Japanese, Malesian, Indian, South African and German. From this we have learnt the incredible value of sharing cultures and perspectives with each other.

Through our family roots, and through traveling and living across the globe, we have been blessed with the gift of diversity and have cultivated our interest in it.

Our vision is to collect interviews of elders from all over the world, offering a glimpse into the diverse realities, that have been lived, over the last 80 years on our planet. And to share the stories and emotions, that unite us all.

We hope that After All Project may be an open flow of cultures, backgrounds, and points of views, celebrating global diversity.

We dedicate the project to our grandparents Nonna Lina & Nonno Mario.