Our pastor's message yesterday prompted me to think about the future. Not just about 'who gets what' when I leave this world, but about the legacy I would leave my children.
During his message on "Leaving a Legacy" in yesterday's service, Phil Wilson asked if anyone had been impacted by someone else (who is now deceased). Immediately my thoughts raced to my grandmother, Annie Maude Brock Jernigan. As kids, my sister, Susan, and I called her "Gaga". As teenagers, we shortened her name to the cooler form, "Gags".
Gags was a very happy lady. Overweight most of her life, she was the model grandmother for the 1960s and 1970s. Along with her rounded body, she sported swollen ankles that puffed out of the top of her patent leather low-heeled shoes, silver horn-rimmed glasses and that ever popular blue-white hair. All of that was set off by a starched dress that was belted at the waist. She was a product of her generation, looking a little older than she really was.
She was a jolly soul, and many times, when she wore her mu-mus, Susan and I would jump up in her lap, only to slide down her lap and legs, just like being on a playground slide. She had little round hands that would find their way to our cheeks. While she patted our faces, she would say, "God love you". She meant it. At every weekend visit, she would sit us down right next to her and ask us to tell her about US! She listened intently as though she was at the most important meeting in the world.
Summer vacations sent us packing all the way to Gags' house in Suffolk, Virginia. Even though Suffolk was not the hot spot of the state, Gags's house was a true vacation. She did anything we wanted and went anywhere we wanted to go. We ate hot dogs at Grunelwald's, roller skated up and down the sidewalk in front of her house, went to get ice cream cones from High's, played Solitaire and Aggravation, toured the city and the country, plummeted through old family photos while listening to Gags tell us stories of the "good old days", and fried up doughnuts made from biscuits out of a can.
Of course, these trips wouldn't be complete without having to go with her to church on Sunday mornings (we were there two weekends), visit my grandfather's grave, and watch her game shows and soaps ("The Price is Right", "The Young and the Restless", and "The Edge of Night") with her every day.
These memories really mean nothing to anyone else. But to me, they provided the luxury of a world that I could look forward to for at least one week every summer. The things we did together were not that significant, but the fact that we were loved beyond description did -- and still does!
Gaga was authentic, real, down-to-earth, courageous, unselfish, and she made everyone feel very special. When she died back in 1990, the church was full of people she had known for most of her life. Frequent comments after the service were, "She was a great lady", "Maude was a real Christian", "Maude walked the walk", and "You had such a fine mother and grandmother". Comments like those are fairly commonplace at southern funerals, but not this time. I knew, by the looks on those faces, that what they said was straight from their hearts.
She didn't have much money, and we always joked about her wrapping our Christmas gifts in white tissue paper with the edges sealed up with Christmas Seals. But we knew that she loved us and meant it every single time she said it. Gaga was as close to a real-life hero as anyone could be.
So what's my legacy going to be? When I eventually pass out of this life, what will I leave my children? Money? No. A great house? No. Tremendous investments? No. Those things just don't matter. What I hope to leave is their knowing that their dad loved them more than anything else in this world, that he meant what he said, that he was strong and courageous, that he stood up for what was right and what he believed in, and that he was a man who sought to live a life of integrity and honesty.
What legacy are you building for your loved ones today? Maybe you haven't thought about it. If you don't have children to leave a legacy to, there's someone's life you can impact - what about them? We all need heroes.
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