A legacy that matters

In the past couple of weeks, I have attended events including a friend’s 50th birthday celebration, silver wedding anniversary and a 70th birthday party.

I am also saddened by recent deaths of beloved friends’ parents. Some deaths were a total shock while others were expected. As I watch some celebrate life and others deal with tragedy, the one thing that strikes a chord is ‘legacy’.

For those hitting key landmarks, what legacies are they building and for those who are gone, what legacies did they leave behind? Does it even matter whether we build a legacy or not?

Looking at some of these lives, I am inspired to write about what I have learnt.

Legacy of honesty and integrity

A respected chief justice left behind a legacy of honesty and integrity, one that was known and attested to by everyone who knew him. His passing was deemed the loss of a nation.

Legacy of gentleness

At my sister-in-law’s 70th birthday celebration, one of her old classmates said you could never pick a fight with her because she was the epitome of gentleness. Others spoke about her quiet and gentle strength and the impact she’s had on her church group. She’s building her own legacy and impacting lives.

Legacy of compassion and prayer

My grandmother spent a lot of time with us as I grew up and quite often she shared my bedroom on her visits. Every morning and night, I heard her pray for family, friends, teachers, police, doctors, students, youth, babies, market women, civil servants.

You get the gist. She prayed for everything and anyone that existed. She even prayed for travellers on all modes of transport. These weren’t people she knew but, day after day, she prayed faithfully for them.

She was a successful business woman who spoke four languages. She traded her goods while travelling between the North, South and Eastern part of Nigeria.

I remember her for the legacy of compassion which led her to bear the burdens of others in prayer. That was how she cared for people who were nameless and faceless to her. Growing up close to her, as she built her legacy, has influenced who I am today.

A father’s legacy

As it is father’s day, I’m reminded of my father’s legacy. Growing up, we knew we weren’t going to inherit material things from our father as he didn’t have them.

He always told us that his legacy was what he was investing in us which included responsibility, vision, integrity, hard work, great education, a well knitted family, love and honesty.

We became a family of straight talkers and we weren’t afraid to challenge each other and address poor judgement. We couldn’t afford to slack or be choosy as there was no backup.

When he died unexpectedly, we all had the strength and determination to be everything he ever dreamed for us. On this foundation, we have lived our lives as we work towards building our own legacies.

I am grateful that instead of money or properties, he left me with a belief in my own ability to create the life that I want and a resilience that keeps me going no matter how challenging things get.

He taught me that if I want something, I’ve got to work for it and that could entail some immediate tough choices to create the future that I want.

Most importantly, he taught me that in loving people as myself, I need to respect their money and time since my own money and time are valuable to me.

My encouragement to you this week, is that you take a moment to think about the frailty of life and the legacy that you’re building. Start or continue to work on your legacy.

I want to say thank you and wish all fathers a happy father’s day.

See you next week. Please share this post with others.