...my 91 year old grandmother passed away
The usual wakes, family flying into town and funeral ensued.
No one can walk away without a bit of reflection.
I was lucky to have my grandmother for a long time.
She met my little guy, her great grandson. Lucky him.
Wouldn't say she had a 'good' death
( like saying you had a 'good' colonoscapy, it is what it is. )
But she had a good life, one I only saw a snapshot of as a grandchild.
Things I'm looking forward to learning about:
- her middle was Quintera?!
- she was a savvy small business owner, when widowed young with 4 kids
- she had a lead foot and drove like Nascar?
This is us.
She used to insist I
looked like local / national weather guy Anwar Knight. Anwar was nice enough to record a Christmas message with me a few years back.Now, I work in estate and gift planning.
I'm also a religious guy.I'm very comfortable around legacies and death and never sugar coat it.
I'm not sharing to depress you but it gives me joy and strength that every day to know that through our shared profession we celebrate life through legacy philanthropy, save families from pain through our estate planning peers and empower our network through education.
Now:
1. Call your damn Grandparents, tell them you love them.
2. Baby boomers!! Get a digital recorder, video or voice and get that life story together, the lessons learned, the fun stuff, the hard stuff, stuff your parents told you - it's your legacy stupid
3. For pete's sake - if you have kids, make a Will, if you've got aging parents encourage them to pre-plan their funeral/burial instructions. It's not morbid, it will save you emotional distress and ensure their wishes are carried out
- -- I always thought it weird that my Uncle is an international authority on Elvis
Guess not, as per my Grandmother's wishes, this is what we sung at her funeral
See you soon Grannie.
Now:
1. Call your damn Grandparents, tell them you love them.
2. Baby boomers!! Get a digital recorder, video or voice and get that life story together, the lessons learned, the fun stuff, the hard stuff, stuff your parents told you - it's your legacy stupid
3. For pete's sake - if you have kids, make a Will, if you've got aging parents encourage them to pre-plan their funeral/burial instructions. It's not morbid, it will save you emotional distress and ensure their wishes are carried out
- -- I always thought it weird that my Uncle is an international authority on Elvis
Guess not, as per my Grandmother's wishes, this is what we sung at her funeral
See you soon Grannie.
Paul -- I'm sorry for your loss. It's good that you could share a little of her story with us, and find the larger life lessons there. May all her prayers for you -- and yours for her -- be answered.
ReplyDeleteIn sadness
Ken
My condolences, Paul. Thanks for sharing your memories.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it nice to have an outlet like a blog? You're creating a legacy and helping preserve hers.
From our day jobs, we both know that surviving to 91 is remarkable. That doesn't lessen the pain but sometimes perspective helps. Remaining healthy until the end is such a blessing. For contrast, look at the last years of Steve Jobs life. He was only 56 — 35 years less.
For item 2 in your action list, I'd recommend a compact video recorder like a Flip with a compact tripod. You can extract audio and video stills. The ideal model would allow the use of disposable batteries and removable memory cards.
Worried about losing the recordings? Maybe some snippets can go on YouTube (which recently removed the 15 minute cap on length). By sharing, others can also benefit from a life well lived.