ever after
ever after follows the steps of Trust in Transits to listen and document the stories of the ones who left, and the ones who were left behind
Thinking that removing one human element leaves the rest untouched is an illusion.
After a dear one departs, life continues, but differently, always an ever after of a traumatic event that changed everything. What happens when someone dies or is "sent away"? What are the problems faced, the thoughts thought, the feelings experienced, and how is a new life built after the momentous event? What does life look like when the anchor of a family is taken away? What do people need in that situation?
Ever After is an enduring, community-centered repository dedicated to documenting and preserving the firsthand experiences of individuals and families who have been forcefully removed from their life. Through recorded interviews, personal testimonies, and multimedia storytelling, the archive safeguards the complex truths of deportation, removal, death or disability, revealing how forced removal disrupts lives, reshapes identities, and forges new forms of resilience.
This archive matters because it provides an irreplaceable primary record that challenges reductionist narratives and makes visible the lived consequences of policy decisions that span generations. Oral memory archives such as this one serve as critical counter-narratives to official accounts, creating a space where personal truth is honored as historical evidence. In documenting stories of trauma, adaptation, and survival, the archive affirms the humanity of those whose experiences are frequently rendered invisible. For domestic and international audiences, these testimonies offer an intimate understanding of forced displacement as an enduring facet of collective history rather than a crisis of the moment.
Preserving these memories ensures that future generations can learn not only about the geopolitical forces that drive mobility but also about the inner worlds of those who traverse borders under duress, or are otherwise forcibly removed from their lives. This collection stands as both a testament and a teaching tool—how existential ruptures can irrevocably transform an individual’s sense of self and belonging. It is our hope that by safeguarding these voices, the Ever After Oral Memory Archive will contribute to a broader movement to dignify memory, sustain cultural knowledge, and inspire humane policies rooted in compassion and accountability.
In the Melian Dialogue, Thucydides lets the Athenian negotiators strip away the pious fig leaf to sharpen the moral and strategic dilemmas of every empire with the phrase, “Justice is a luxury for equals; when the balance tilts, might writes the rules,” commonly cited in English following the Crawley version of 1874: “while the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.” It is our hope that the Trust in Transit Ever After Oral Memory Archive will also remind policymakers about the long-term risks of power politics, and that history teaches us that in those moments, “when you’re the strong, act wisely; when you’re the weak, get allies fast.”
Under the direction of Sean Wellington, a narrative specialist whose work explores long-form accounts of marginalized, often unspoken subjects—including death, near-death encounters, and other transformative events— this oral memory archive seeks to elevate voices that too often remain unheard.
Sean Wellington is the lead director of Ever After