Legacy

I'm about to start transcribing my Grandfather's personal history, and I can't help but feel blessed to be able to do it. I have now spent many hours with Grandpa interviewing him and listening to him talk about his life, and it's been a pleasure to learn more about him. Sometimes when I'm sitting there listening to him tell a story I can see the wrinkles melt away from his face and there in front of me is the young man he used to be so many years ago.
When talking to Grandpa, it's not hard to tell that he is most proud of his posterity. He keeps track of his children's children and their children on a pedigree chart that he hangs in his living room. He speaks fondly of each of them and looks forward to visits and phone calls from any of them. He mentioned the last time I was at his house that he had just spent time with his sister in California and was looking forward to a visit with another sister in Oregon. But he thought it was interesting, and perhaps sad, that neither of his two sisters have anywhere near as many grandchildren as he does. It made me think of my own life and where I might be in sixty years, and I have to say, I hope I will be in the same place he is now. It seems like in this day and age there is so much emphasis put on career, seeing the world and being the biggest success you can be. I look at my friend's and family's photos on the internet of all the places they are traveling to and all the amazing things they've done, and until that day at Grandpa's, I felt jealous of them. I have never been to most of the places I would like to see, never fulfilled many of the dreams that I had when I was younger and was envisioning how I wanted my life to be. But now, with Grandpa's observation about family, I know I am blessed beyond what I could have wished for for myself. I have four beautiful children and a husband who puts us before anything else. Sixty years from now I hope I will be reaping the benefits of a large posterity, just like my grandpa. When my face is aged with wrinkles, I would rather have a whole crowd of loved ones around me than a passport full of stamps.