A moment to remember

About five days ago
...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.