What's your Legacy

As many of you know, I recently got married to a wonderful (actually amazing) woman.?This post is not about her or our marriage but it is loosely connected.?One of our brides maid?and my wife’s best friend lost her husband of over 20 years to brain cancer.??And sitting last night?celebrating his life with stories and memories and looking at so many pictures got me to thinking about legacy.

You see her husband was a Marine but not just any Marine, her husband had been the subject of a history channel about sergeants across the branches.?You see her husband was a Drill Sargent as an E-5 (3 stripes) which is unheard of.?A Sr. Drill Instructor for those that don’t know is in charge of several other Drill Instructors.?That means that as a 3 stripe E5 he would have been managing other Drill Instructors who technically out ranked him.?When he served in Iraq he was awarded the medal of merit for using himself to draw fire by walking down a street?to become a target so our snipers (Chris Kyle) could locate this enemy sniper and take him out.?When he finished his tours of duty he was close to the 20 year mark but he had a few more things that he wanted to accomplish so he became a ROTC instructor so he could have an impact on the lives of teenagers and hopefully impart upon them some of the things that are no longer taught in our schools…. Honor, Integrity, Dedication just to name a few.

As most Marines he was a protector.?About a month before the wedding I was invited over for dinner to their home.?My wife had spent a lot of time with them and became very close but I had really never met him.?You see he had become very fond of my soon to be wife and he did what came so natural to him.?He was at his core a protector and had to determine if I was worthy enough to marry Eliane.?Our friend told the story last night that I not only passed the test. But passed it with flying colors and that he signed off on her being able to walk down the aisle.

It was a few short years ago that mor friend got the bad news that he had a Tumor and one that would most likely be fatal.?What I loved about this man that so few of us fail to do is that he lived every single to do suck the marrow out of life.?Every day was a blessing to him.??He had a job yet to do, you see his son was 14 when he was diagnosed so He had a job to do and that was to beat the Odds and make it to see his son walk across the stage at graduation.?Well he succeeded in that task – one of the last pictures was of him and his son smiling (actually beaming) because the Mission had been accomplished.

Experiencing all of this last night and hearing the stories got me to thinking about legacy… my own to be specific but legacy in general.?When my grandfather passed away there was an overflow of people to come pay respect to a man that was a simple train conductor on Amtrak (thus my love of passenger trains) He had a legacy.??You see last night as we were remembering a great man it occurred to me that a legacy is far more than the money you leave.??This man’s legacy was not the medals, achievements or awards he won.?His legacy was not being featured on the History channel.??His legacy lives on in his son and in the lives of the people that he impacted.?As we remember him we become part of his legacy.

In my work as a financial planner one of the key conversations I have with people has to do with legacy planning.?But a legacy is not something you really plan it is something that you have to live each day to achieve.?So as I end this my question for you is what is your legacy???What will you do each and every day to live up to the legacy that you want to have for your ?friends, community family and children.

#Legacy, #MakeADifference, LegacyPlanning