To Be a Blessing

To Be a Blessing
Genesis 12: 2b

When my grandmother died, she left her legacy to be divided among her grandchildren. Her legacy was about two hundred pounds (about three hundred dollars), and we got about twenty pounds each. I bought two prints with it: one sits behind me as I write; the other sits near our bed. They still remind me of her. But in another sense her legacy is rather the excellent apple pie I remember her making, the help she gave to my mother (her daughter-in-law) when she was under pressure, the months I spent staying with her during a family emergency, and the family parties she gave every Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day). In neither sense did she think about leaving a legacy, but she left one nevertheless. A few weeks ago, my physician asked me to update the form I had completed some years ago that tells health-care people about decisions to be made for you if you cannot make them for yourself. The form also asks how you would like to be remembered. I wrote, “He was not the kind of person who told people how to remember him.”...