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Daily writing prompt
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

Legacy is defined as an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. Other definitions include the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life. It can also include values and traits that you have instilled in your children. The example sentence is, he left his children love and respect. Let’s look at each individual example. You pretty much know if you have instilled values in your children on how they are living their own lives. If you die when your children are very young, then you really won’t know for sure how they will turn out. Most people know, especially today if they are going to have some kind of lasting impact on society. They may not know to what extent their impact will be, but they know that people will remember the things that they have done long after they have passed. This brings us to the last meaning of legacy, leaving someone money or property after you die. This is what a will is all about. I have never understood making sure that you leave a large amount of money to your children or grandchildren or anybody for that matter. You will never see what they are going to do with all that money. Wouldn’t it bring you more joy to see them use the money or gifts while you are alive, even if it would mean you may have to cut back some on your own lifestyle. Do people do this because they think that after they die, they will look down upon earth and see what happens when their loved ones get all of that money. Sometimes receiving a lot of money may ruin some people’s lives. If you give them money while you are alive, you would be able to see how they are handling it. To answer the question, I am leaving no legacy. I am giving my money to my daughter’s family while I am alive and giving more as I age. This is easy to do when your goal is to die a pauper.

Retired Just Like Me

Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?

When my parents were 73, they were retired just like me. My mother was a secretary who worked during World War II, before I was born. Once I was born, she stayed home which was the norm in those days. She went back to work when I went to college and worked until she was 62. My Dad owned a beer distributor until 1968 and then worked as a salesman for an appliance store until he was 67. I can honestly say that the retirement years were the best years of my Dad’s life. My parents owned rental property that consisted of two houses, two garage apartments, one small mobile home, and a building that contained 4 apartments, all on one floor. My Dad was a Mr. Fix It and he woke up every day hoping someone would have a problem with something so he could fix it. There were only the three of us, my parents and me. However, we had 3 washing machines, 2 dryers, 4 lawn mowers, and various motors everywhere in the garage. None of them cost a dime. My Dad would find them, bring them home, repair or replace whatever was wrong with them and we would have a new appliance or piece of equipment. He had the motors to replace the motors on the various pieces of equipment we had, in case something went wrong with them. I can say growing up, I never saw a repair man, plumber, or electrician the entire time. Back in the day, when TV’s had tubes instead of transistors, he would always be able to fix the TV. I can remember standing in front of the TV set telling my Dad, picture, no picture, sound, no sound. I can also remember us messing around with the test pattern. If you don’t know what a test pattern is, look it up. My Dad always made sure that the test pattern was always perfect. He even checked it when there seemed to be nothing wrong, just to make sure. My Dad died when he was 83, after about a 4-month illness. He had the best 15 years of retirement that anybody could possibly have had. Every day he was doing the one thing he loved to do most, fix something that was broken or doing the maintenance on something to make sure it would get broken.