Leaving a Legacy

We all have something we want to pass on to people after us — a quilt, a recipe, an old cedar hope chest. I have those things, too. But my family taught me a long time ago the best things you can pass on are shared memories. I have lost both of my grandmothers during the past six years, and I miss them every day in different ways. But my grief is lessened by the wonderful memories I have in those little moments that come on rainy days. I’ll find myself saying how I should tell something to Grandma Marge — she’d love that! Or wouldn’t Grandma Jan be happy to know I’m taking the kids there? I’m so lucky to have had that time with all of my grandparents. Those moments, the little and the big ones — they’re their legacy more than any financial or material thing.

My family loves to travel around the U.S. and around the world. I was never a big traveler, but since having children of my own, I find myself wanting to create those shared memories. I traveled with my grandparents to Cancun when I was 10 and thought I was on top of the world. I ate cold cereal and bologna sandwiches out of an old metal green Coleman cooler while camping with my parents all over the U.S. I watched “The Golden Girls” and learned to sew curtains on my grandma’s couch during a week-long bout with the chicken pox. I was one lucky kid all the way around, and there aren’t enough pages to write all my wonderful memories. But now as a parent myself, I see these are more than just memories — they’re legacies, things I need to pass on.

My parents are amazing, and they’re doing some of that legacy-leaving with their own grandchildren. And my husband and I are working on taking each of our children on a special trip for a little one-on-one time that’s very hard to get in today’s crazy schedule. Because of this, I will leave that legacy of travel with my own kids. But I’ll also leave girls’ nights out with queso cheese and cookie dough, piano concerts and puzzles, and letting the kids play hooky every once in a while just to have a mom-and-me playdate. Hopefully, when they’re parents, they’ll remember these times and make that their own legacy.

Things are just things, and money disappears. Legacies don’t have to be trips around the world or four-generation quilts. They’re letters, ice cream in the park, sitting on the porch or watching the stars. Legacies are shared smiles and rainy day memories. What legacy will you leave?