September 30, 2024 /

Legacy

When is it time to think about our legacy?  While we’re living our life?  While we wait for death on our deathbed?   Is our legacy something material, something of this world of end effects or is it spiritual, something non-material?  Perhaps it is a combination of both?

Exactly how are we remembered?  Is it in the memory of those around us of our deeds, our actions?  Is it in the physicality of our children and grandchildren perhaps?  What footprints do we leave behind for others to see, or to follow?

My friend for whom I have been caring for these past 7 months died alone in a hospital bed on a recent Sunday evening in September.  He was angry and hostile, railing at the world and those in it, and his last act on earth was an unkind and cruelly targeted act; his legacy was to inflict hurt and pain on those close to him.  This is his legacy, a toxic remembrance fueled by anger and self-pity.

In thinking of my friend I reflect on my own life, my own actions.  What will I leave behind, what will I take with me?  What will my legacy be?  What does that mean and how will discovering that shape my life?  I already know the answer.

I will leave behind profound gratitude for a wonderful life which has been full of adventure and revelation.  I will leave behind an earthly life richly lived, a life lived with purpose, a life which has been filled with wonder and delight and curiosity and yearning.  A life which has taught me the value of integrity, of truth, of justice.  And the legacy I will take with me will be my love for God and higher life.

 

Michele T Knight Written by:

Dr Michele Knight is a Social Worker, Social Scientist, researcher and independent scholar. Her interest and research in the end-of-life has its origin in the lived experiences of her own bereavements, her near-death and shared-death events, the returning deceased and attitudinal responses to those experiences. Since 2006, she has been extensively involved in community development, support and advocacy in both a professional and community services/voluntary capacity in the areas of bereavement and grief, hospital pastoral care, and academic lecturing/tutoring. Her PhD, Ways of Being: The alchemy of bereavement and communique, explores the lived experience of bereavement, grief, spirituality and unsought encounters with the returning deceased.

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