Touched by an Angel: What legacy will you leave?

"The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith." - Billy Graham

Not long back from a family funeral and I am so aware of the legacy we each leave when we die.

Our legacy to our children and their partners, our grandchildren and their partners, and if we are the lucky enough to see the next generation growing up and experiencing life - all these people whose lives we have touched.

During this Covid year, being part of our families has been a struggle for most of us, and yet each day with or without them around we have each been writing our legacy. It was about how we have managed, found time to laugh and share with others, wrote music and books, and entertained each other through media and from behind masks, all that has become part of our legacies.

My Angels remind me that the things I do for myself will easily slip away, but the things I do for others will remain as my legacy. It is what we do for the next generation that counts.

Maybe a cleaner greener world, maybe simply doing our own small part of saving the world in our own corner of the world is us writing our legacy for the future.

The legacy I hope that I leave behind is a very simple one – that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I can. I have stood strong for justice and challenged injustice wherever I have been confronted with it.

Everyone leaves a legacy, whether they want or not. The question is, "What kind of legacy will you leave?"

We have built our legacies piece by piece, maybe lots of people will remember us, maybe only a few. As with our family member, her legacy was her faith and her family, her children who farewelled her with love and will continue to hold her legacy of faith, love, children and family.

Arohanui. Shirley-Joy