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Reply by CarolynMarie
08 Jul 2012, 11:24 PM

Hi Suzanne!
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions!  You are amazing!  I sense that you are feeling the pressure or time.  Sometimes I feel a sense of urgency, and other days/times, I feel the same and no sense of urgency, although I also notice my children seem to feel that sense of urgency, at times.  I love your idea about leaving cards for your daughter.  I love that you have written her letters and have a box of "souvenirs" from babyhood!  Lovely!  Thank you so much for your wonderful suggestions!

Has anyone seen the tv show called, "The Big C".  In the show, the Mom, who has stage 4 cancer, rents a storage locker and buys birthday & Christmas gifts, graduation cards and gifts and a huge number of other life gifts for her then, 14 year old son.  I like this show and I sure wish I could do that for my  children!  Of course it is not all about the material stuff, I know.  

Thanks for your thoughts and wisdom!  I hope you are doing okay.  Thank you for taking time time to write.  
hugs & love,
Carolyn  
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Reply by Jimmie
08 Jul 2012, 11:54 PM


I do not have any suggestions to offer in response to Carolyn's initial request.  However, I do want to encourage you Carolyn, and Passirose to continue to reflect on this question of "what to leave behind" when you have the energy and emotional reserves to do so.

AS a result of her own illness, my wife is no longer capabl;e of creating the types of memories you have both initiated.   As a consequence of my wife's illness, one of our daughters has focused her doctoral thesis on "Mother's as Memory Keepers".  I have read the rough drafts of her research and been deeply moved by how mothers tend to be the ones who create a living legacy within so many families.  They are the collector of morabilia - both concrete and ethereal.  They keep these memories safe within photo albums, brown paper bags, baskets, chests, scrapbooks - and their hearts.  They secure the private moments of endearment, and in doing so secure for their children the sense of being cherished throughout time - time past and time to come.  I don't think there is any greater inheritance that a parent can give a child than the fundamental sense of having been cherished.

So, I would encourage you to continue what must at times be an enormously difficult endeavour.  Gather the memories from the mundane to the extraordinary.  Offer them as gifts to your children.  Such gifts are timeless; their capacity to quicken the spirit of the love they enshrine will never diminish, never.

Jim
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Reply by MelissaAnn
06 Feb 2016, 5:56 PM

The post I am responding to appears to be from a while ago but it touched my heart. I feel a lot those feelings I send you my best wishes. People like you are the reason I am happy to be given the time I have
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Reply by KathCull_admin
06 Feb 2016, 6:02 PM

Hi MelissaAnn
It's always amazing to me how powerful words are - how they can reach out over the years and be just the right ones to touch our heart.

Have you been thinking more about your legacy MA?

Katherine 

 
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Reply by MelissaAnn
06 Feb 2016, 6:07 PM

No I haven't. Maybe I am still waiting because I am feeling like if I finish everything up then it will be my time I'm sure that sounds silly but I think I am more scared of what I will miss when I am gone than dying 
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Reply by linda*
08 Feb 2016, 11:15 PM


hi MelissaAnn. 
I think being scared of what you will miss is the same as worrying.
and I think it is a waste of energy to worry.  as I write that, I think it looks really silly but it's true.  sigh. 
and I do know it's hard to let go of worry.
you have three boys?
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Reply by oldbat
14 Feb 2016, 4:38 PM

Hi all,

Karl and I have made two videos of our journey since his stroke.  Most of my friends have copies.  Our legacy!

oldbat 
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