How I would like to be remembered...

This summer we lost a coworker quite suddenly. She was only 60 years old. And now we have two clients losing their own battles with cancer. Stuff like that makes me think. I wonder, if I'm remembered, how I will be remembered.

I hope I'm remembered as a good person. When my dad passed we couldn't have anticipated the throngs of people that would show up at his wake. There were so many people that the funeral home had to open two additional rooms. I sat there looking around amazed at how many people my dad touched in his life. People we, his family, were completely unaware he knew let alone touched. I don't think I'll have that kind of farewell but I hope that I will have done enough in my life so that at the end of it I will be remembered as a good person.

I hope I'm remembered as a good friend. I've never had a lot of friends. That's been by choice. I do better with a small handful of very close friends - friends I don't have to see every day but when we are together it's like we never missed a minute together. I hope that they'll remember me fondly as I will them.

I hope I'm remembered as creative. I've tried to always have something creative in my life. I get spurts of  creativity where I paint or draw and I write. I've acted. I've sung. I just hope someone remembers that because it's been a pretty important part of me and some of my proudest moments have come from it.

I hope I'm remembered as a traveler. I love to travel and I don't get to do it nearly enough. I've been blessed to be able to go to Sweden as often as I have because I have people in my own family who've never ventured out of Wisconsin let alone get on a plane to another country. I want to see so many places still! I hope I get to do it and I hope I'm remembered for it.

I hope I'm remembered as a woman who loved her family. Family is very important to me. My parents taught me the importance of taking care of the loved ones you're lucky enough to be related to and I hope I can always do that. I don't want my family to be sad when it's my time but I want them to celebrate all the great times we had so I intend to make sure we keep having those great times.

Lastly, I hope I'm remembered for my humor. I see things on the lighter side of life most of the time. There are very few situations where I can't find something to laugh about. Oh, I take things seriously when it's called for but I try to see the funny side of things. I hope people will remember that.

I don't mean for this blog to be macabre. And I hope that I have many, many years left too! But it's food for thought to wonder how others see me and what they might think about me when I'm gone.