By Dixie 
Internet star. Influencer. YouTube personality. CEO of a tech company whose stock is breaking records and being called the next Amazon or Microsoft. Award-winning actor, best selling author, or inventor of the next cure for something. Famous and filthy rich.
What if (like 99.99% of the population) you are none of these? What is your legacy?
My cousin Greg died last week, likely of a massive heart attack. I didn’t know him very well. Like most extended family who no longer live in the same community, when our grandparents died many years ago we lost touch. I went to his funeral yesterday.
I remember he and his two brothers as teenagers racing into our grandparents home after hunting or some sort of adventure that teenaged country boys did back then. They were laughing and out of breath and were gone as quickly as they came. Two of the brothers lived their lives in that community, getting married, working hard and raising families of their own over the years. The other brother lives on the West coast and has created a beautiful life of his own with his wife.
They are all in their 60’s now. But when I saw them at Greg’s funeral, the years fell away and they were still teenage boys full of life and promise. It was a surprise and a pleasure to meet their grown kids and grandkids.
Greg’s wife was described as the love of his life and she died from cancer many years ago. Greg never remarried and raised his three boys on his own. At his funeral, there was a flock of grandchildren, most with beautiful red or blond hair. Greg had jet black hair and his wife Rita had strawberry blond hair (as I recall from the few times I had met her and from the pictures scattered around the funeral home). Greg’s boys had red hair when they were young but Greg’s darker hair when they were older. They are both individuals with stories of their own as well as a mosaic of Greg and Rita’s love story and legacy.
Greg’s sister is my age and like me doesn’t have children of her own. I heard she was an enormous help in raising Greg’s children when his wife died, as well as to her other brother’s children. Her legacy is in her nieces and nephews who were all around her at her brother’s funeral. She also has another legacy. Every time I see her, which is always at funerals and sometimes her immediate family’s, she is smiling through tears. I can’t think of her without hearing her laughing. That is a wonderful legacy of its own to be a bright and positive example of light during a dark time.
Legacy is not about fame or fortune. It isn’t about getting the most “likes” or making the most money. Legacy is a mosaic of all the good you have done for others, by example as well as action.
What is your legacy?