What Legacy Isn’t
Rebecka Vigus
Coaching authors to enhance their writing and finish their book, to create influence, impact, and income. Works on #characters, #plot, #content, #ideas, #deadlines, #dialogue, #message
December 6, 2024
Legacy Writing is not something you do so that people will love you when you are gone. If you think it is, you are sadly mistaken. It’s not writing a book to be given to grandchildren or great grandchildren once you have died. It isn’t something you do to gain respect. Legacy writing can do none of that for you.
What legacy writing does, is give you a chance to build memories right now with your grandchildren. It’s a way of showing them who they are. It’s telling them about their ancestors. It’s bringing you closer to your grandchildren no matter what their age.
I wrote my third novel and dedicated it to my grandchildren Megan and Jason. I was going to visit for a weekend and took the books to them. At the time Megan was between seven and nine years old. Which made Jason between four and six. They both thanked me and went to put their books in their rooms. Megan came back out and said to me, “Granny, no one has ever dedicated a book to me before.” She was in awe that her name was in a book on the dedication page. It touched my heart.
By the time she was in seventh grade, she was taking all of my books to her English teacher, because she was so proud that her Granny was writing books. I have no idea what the teacher thought. My daughter didn’t know she was sharing the books with her teacher. What I had done by putting her name on a dedication page was give her a memory she could share along with the book I wrote.
I generally dedicate books to people or family that mean something to me. It is not a way for me to gain the respect of these people. I already have that. It is a way to let them know I cherish them in my life.
Legacy writing for me, is more than just stories. It’s a part of who I am that I am sharing with my loved ones. It’s a part of who they are when I tell the tales I heard my grandparents or parents tell. It’s a tapestry of who we all are and how we are tied together. Yes, legacy writing can show values and beliefs. It can also show failures and how to overcome them. Or how someone overcame them.
The last time I wrote on LinkedIn about legacy writing I shared a story of my grandfather’s hands. I remember much more about my grandfather. I will continue to share other stories about him at different times.
I spent three hours with a much younger cousin the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He wanted to know about the family history research I had done on the Henderson family of which we are both part of. I had my laptop and we looked at the family tree on ancestry and traced our family back to my 26th great grandfather and I told him I had learned that there were four brothers who lived in Fordel Castle in Fife, Scotland outside of Edinburg. Three were body guards to King James of Scotland and one was one of the scribes who helped create the King James version of the Bible. There is documentation on that. Fordel Castle still stands. It was up for sale a few years ago. I didn’t have the asking price or anywhere near that. The person or persons who bought it were also able to purchase the title which went with it. I don’t know if they did. Had they made that purchase is it a Baroncy.
We also went through great Grandma Henderson’s family and he discovered we had an uncle named Samuel Adams who fought in the Revolutionary War. His father, Lt. Samuel Adams fought in the War of 1812.
Later I reminded him that is only one side of his mother’s family. He has his Grandma Anne’s side, too. Then he has both sides of his dad’s side of the family. He was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. Two sides of my mother’s family are already done. The McVannel side has been done and put into a book, I have that. The Gee side which is her father’s side has been done. It is in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada archives. I have a cousin on that side of the family trying to get us both a copy as my mother’s has been lost. We cannot do my great Grandmother McVannel’s side of the family. She was adopted. Her adoptive parents were Van Vedenbergs. No one to my knowledge has done my great Grandfather Cook’s family tree. I am working on it.
The stories I learn from this give me the stories I can put in a legacy book. Mind you, I am limiting my book to thirty-two pages. I am not writing a tome. I want it to be something I can sit with my grandchildren and great grandchildren and share. My grandchildren were lucky enough to have two grandmothers and a set of great grandparents when they were growing up. My granddaughter remembers a little bit about her mom’s dad.
When you think of legacy writing, pull out the old photo album. Find a photo that has a memory and write that memory down. It can be the start to your legacy book. Just write the memory and how it made you feel at the time. Share the memory with your grandchildren. They don’t need to know you are putting it into a book until you are done. If you are not comfortable writing it down. Use a tape recorder and talk into it about the memory and how you felt at the time. It’s easy if you try. #justwrite, #legacywriting #sharingmemories #makingmemories
