Tomoko

Age: 62
Occupation: Retired postal worker
Platform: Android (Galaxy A14)
Tier: Free, upgrading to Plus
Accessibility: Low vision — uses 140% font scaling
Grief type: Anticipatory grief (husband diagnosed with ALS)

---

Her Story

Tomoko worked for the postal service for 31 years. She retired the year her husband was diagnosed. She didn't plan it that way — she'd been thinking about retirement anyway — but the timing meant that the day she stopped working was also the day she became her husband's primary caregiver.

His diagnosis came with a progression timeline that the doctors were careful not to be too specific about. "Months to years" is what they said. What they meant, Tomoko understood, was: there's still time, but not unlimited time. So she started using that time.

She downloaded Grief Companion because she needed somewhere to put things. Not her feelings, exactly — she processes those in the garden and at mass on Sundays. She needed somewhere to put the facts. The stories. The things she is watching, every day, that she is terrified of forgetting.

How She Uses the App

Tomoko's primary use is the Memory Book. She has 47 memories there now — photos, stories, dates. She creates them methodically, the way she organized routes when she was still delivering mail: one by one, each in its right place. She has organized them into collections:

• His hands when he cooked
• The grandchildren and him
• Places we went before
• Things he still does

That last collection is the one she updates most often. She adds to it while she still can.

She recently began exploring the voice recording feature (Plus). Her husband's speech has started to change — not dramatically yet, but enough that she notices. She wants to record his voice telling a story before the disease takes more of it. That's the reason she's upgrading.

Her check-in streak is 53 days. She doesn't miss check-ins the way she didn't miss mail stops — she's consistent because she understands that the record matters, even on days when she isn't sure how she feels.

She has bookmarked every article in the Grief Education Library related to anticipatory grief and caregiver burnout. She reads them at night, after her husband is asleep, sitting at the kitchen table with her reading glasses and her phone at maximum brightness.

Her Personality and Tone

Tomoko is warm, deliberate, and thorough. She makes lists. She documents things. She shows love through preparation and presence. She is not the kind of person who falls apart in public — not because she doesn't feel things deeply, but because she has decided that being steady is how she helps right now.

She came to the app not because she was struggling to cope, but because she is planning. She knows what is coming. She wants the record of what is here, right now, to be complete.

She doesn't talk much about how she feels in her app entries. She writes about what she sees: "Today he made us omelets. He had to try twice because his left hand was shakier than before, but he made them. They were good." The emotion is in the fact.

What She's Found Helpful

• Memory Book — her primary tool and the reason she stays
• Collections — lets her organize memories the way she organizes everything
• Voice recording (upgrading for this) — to capture his voice before it changes further
• Daily check-in — she treats it like a daily log
• Caregiver burnout articles — she reads them without anyone knowing she does

Her Feedback to Grief Companion

She appreciates the large, clear text (though she adjusted the font size in her phone settings herself — she'd love if the app had an in-app font size setting). She's on a mid-range Android device, and the app is responsive without lag. She doesn't use the journal. She's not a writer. She's a documenter.

---

Tomoko's persona is used to test accessibility features, Android compatibility, and the Memory Book and voice recording flows. When building or testing any feature she might use, verify behavior at 140% font scaling and on a mid-range Android device.