3 Tangible Ways to Leave a Legacy

The first Christmas after my grandmother passed away, it hit me that she was forever gone. When I sat down for dinner and looked at my plate, something was missing, but I couldn’t figure out what it was that second. In the middle of the night, I ended up in the fridge, which I always do on Christmas Eve. I scoped up the scallop potatoes and corn soufflé and shuffled around the tupperware. ‘Where the hell is the fruit salad?!’ I thought. My heart sank. The realization of what had been missing at dinner was the fruit salad and the person who made it all these years, Grandma B.

As I grew older, I waited for the fruit salad to be remembered and made, but no one ever did. Finally, I got so irritated that I asked my dad what was in that delicious creation, but as we talked about the ingredients, we weren’t entirely sure of the exact recipe. Still, whether another family member ever wrote down the recipe or someone has it remains a mystery. I hope that someday the recipe will be found, and all in one spoonful of fruit salad, all the memories of the remarkable woman my grandmother was will flood back to me again. I hope we get to share the fruit salad and tell stories of Grandma B with our children who didn’t have the opportunity to meet her to keep her legacy alive. It’s common to think that a legacy means all of our significant accomplishments and how they will affect the world at large. How, in our time, we must leave a branded mark on all of the world to create any legacy, and while that way is admirable, and if you feel the passion to do so, I implore you! However, the smaller and more intimate things you do will be engraved into the hearts of those who’ve had the pleasure of knowing and loving you. I think it’s important to remember whether you are going out and making major changes in the world or not. If you haven’t done so yet, start being the person you want to be remembered by, and everything else will fall into place. It may not be a fun idea to think about no longer being here, but it is reality, and the best time to start sowing the seeds of your legacy is now.

I have 3 ways for you to create a tangible legacy for your loved ones.

1. Have a Recipe Box or Cookbook

Once you are gone, it is not just a piece of paper with a recipe anymore. It’s a part of you that your loved ones have left within the writing, the funny or helpful notes in the margins of the page that make you feel like you are there in spirit, the splatter of sauce that stands the test of time and tells the history of that day. When we make the recipes created by those no longer with us, we still have their comfort and memory alive at the table.

2. Printed Pictures

I am selfishly writing this tip for myself. I am not the best at getting pictures printed and into photo albums. I tend to rely more on my devices, but it wasn’t until the recent passing of a childhood friend that I ultimately did a 180 on that thought process. When I went to look at my computer for all my old pictures from junior high, they were gone. You got that right, not a picture left! My old trusty computer officially took a shit on me. Those pictures were taken before the days of iPhones with a cloud. I was so upset because I didn’t have one photo of my childhood friend that had passed. I couldn’t look back at those memories anymore to help with the grieving process, and that sucked. It made me think about what I need to do to secure the memories for our children one day when we are no longer here. While I can have everything on the cloud, having pictures that our loved ones can view and flip open with our notes and our touch of creativity within a scrapbook is much more special. Phones and computers should be the backup plan, not the old-school family photo albums! Let’s print those pictures, people!

3. Keep a Diary

This diary doesn’t need to be like a personal diary, where you vent and work through your emotions. Still, a diary explaining current happenings and details so that your future grandchildren, their children, and so on have access to what your life was like, the truth behind events, when you got the dream job or that funny thing their uncle said when he was five and to have pieces of your wisdom for decades that are bound to make a positive ripple effect in the future of your family.

I felt called to write about this topic as we head into the holidays. It’s not one you hear about much during this time, as it is grim. Still, I thought it is a good intention to go into the holiday season to keep legacy on your mind in the way you show up to the family gatherings this year, the meals, stories, memories, the photographs you want to make sure you get, and the traditions you want to relive or create. After all, the esteemed fruit salad served every Thanksgiving and Christmas sparked the inspiration for this very piece you are reading and what a legacy that is.