Inheritance and Legacy

A comment by my bff has me thinking about the things we inherit and the legacy we leave behind. Since no one gets out of here alive, I think at some point it's only natural to consider what we've done with our lives and what we will leave those we love with when we depart this world.

As a young girl, the only thing I cared to inherit was a beautiful glass-fronted bookcase handmade by my maternal grandfather. I'd watched the tender love and care he'd put into making the piece, and he and I shared a love of books. He'd actually made the bookcase as a place of honor for the many first and second edition printings of classics by authors he admired such as Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas. An appreciation which he passed on to me at an early age. When other little girls were being read bedtime story's from Little Golden Books, Pop was reading to me from Verne's "Around The World In Eighty Days". And when in his late 80's he died, I inherited his collection of books ... but not the beloved bookcase which housed them. That honor went to his daughter - my mother.

Growing up, I'd made casual comments to my mother about "Pops bookcase" someday being mine, and she'd assured me it would be so. Over the years, my mother inherited other bits and pieces from my grandparents life; a gilt music box with a faded little yellow canary atop, a brass stamp box that once had pride of place on my grandmother's desk, a beautiful Mahogany Duncan Pfyfe card table, as fashionable and timeless today as it was in the 1920's. Long after the passing of my beloved grandparents, these items served to remind me of happy days in their home; be it reading with my grandfather, or picking raspberries and putting up preserves with my grandmother.

Today Pop's bookcase showcases my favorite books along with my darling husbands' airplane collection, while grandma's Duncan Pfyfe table graces the entance to our home. The brass stamp box is once again filled with stamps, and sits ready in my office, and the little yellow canary, even more faded today, adorns a shelf where it serves as a daily reminder of the gracious and gifted woman I called Grandma.

There have been many other things I inherited from my mother and her parents, as well as my father's mother. But some of the best things I inherited, aren't "things" at all. In addition to inheriting Pops love of books and reading, I think I inherited his love of gardening and beating the birds to the best berries! From Grandma I believe I inherited my appreciation for a pretty table (bff and I joke that we are "dish whores") and my ability to spend hours wandering the aisles of stores such as Home Goods just admiring pretty dishes and linens.

Books may be enjoyable to read, furniture can make a home comfortable, and while jewelry adorns a hand, and money buys many things, the thing I've inherited that I value the most is the legacy of appreciating kindness, honesty, courage and fairness. My maternal grandparents embodied all four of these, and they reminded my siblings and me of the importance of these qualities at every opportunity.

We will each of us meet many people on the road through our lives, some will be dishonest, some will take advantage of our kindness, some may even rob us of our courage momentarily. I choose to believe that these poor souls are simply misguided or lost, and I try my best to feel pity for them. And then I remember a favorite quote (author unknown) on our refrigerator door that reads;

"In the end, it will not be our beliefs that are judged, it will be our actions and intentions. So believe what you wish, but be careful of what you do and why you do it."

Words my Grandma and Pop lived by every single day, and a gift I inherited that is more valuable than any book or bauble ever could be.

What will your children inherit from you, that will outlast mere "things"?

What will your legacy be?


Lori