In my last post I offered a list of questions to help you think about your legacy. In this post I’d like to provide you with some tools for capturing your legacy.
Personal Journals or Photo albums

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If you’ve kept a personal journal over the years you have a gold mine for thoughts about your legacy. Review your journal for highlights of your life that speak of what has given your life meaning.
If you have kept a photo album of significant events in your life you have a treasure trove of significant moments that speak to your legacy. Maybe you could arrange your photos as a montage of meaning and accomplishments with captions that capture the how the photos speak to your legacy.
Pen and Paper or Word Processing Software and a Laptop
Start writing your responses to some of the questions I gave you in my last post. Once you’ve written your responses down you can organize them by years or themes.
Audio or Video

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If writing is not your forte try doing an audio or video recording of your thoughts about your life and it’s significance.
Online Legacy Resources

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Here’s a list of online tools described on myfarewelling.com.
Try Saga is almost like hosting a private family podcast, where you ask questions and your family members answer in their own words. Their responses are recorded, securely stored, and shared with those of your choosing. Over time, you can build an audio archive of unearthed memories, epic tales, and silly stories. The platform has been designed to offer low-tech alternatives to those who need them. You can listen, comment, and react to each other’s answers. Note: the Try Saga app is currently only available for Apple users, but you can join the Android waitlist.
For those who are more inclined to share their stores in a written format, here’s a sort of weekly newsletter-style practice that asks a family member questions over time, then collects their answers in a keepsake book (yes, you can buy extra copies to share!). The questions presented over a period of time can make a life story project feel more manageable and can be a great ongoing activity to spark memories and details of a beautiful life. Ideally the StoryWorth process is designed to capture stories from one person’s life, but if you’d like to combine stories from more than one person, you can just purchase additional more subscriptions.
Tribute is a website that makes it easy to build a collaborative and dynamic video homage. You can create one for any important occasion, including as a memorial video tribute to a loved one. The process is super simple: first you invite your family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else you’d like. Then they each create their own short tribute video, story or memory, and upload it. The app does the rest, and you can share the final compilation at a family gathering or by posting it online or sending it to whomever you like. A group video tribute can be a great element at a virtual event or an in-person remembrance.
Lastly prompts you to create a life timeline, photo galleries, and to gather remembrances of people who were important to the process of you, becoming you. It’s an empowering way to take charge of your own story and legacy, and it gets shared later, on your terms.
This messaging app holds recordings, photos and videos until a specified date in the future. You designate a family member to send proof of your death, and once verified, your messages (for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries, or just a random Monday) will be released according to the calendar you’ve created.
This app offers the chance to collaborate on saved memories, timelines and stories, or to work privately on a project. The Memories app offers a space to safeguard your personal legacy for now and for future generations. Their app offers a platform where you can capture your story as well as invite your loved ones to collaborate to create a visual timeline that you can share with family and friends. You can add photos, stories, videos and comments and rest assured that they will be safely preserved for posterity.
Safe Beyond describes itself as a Digital Time Capsule or “Dropbox for the Afterlife.” Through their online platform and mobile app, you can create personalized future messages (written notes, poems, stories, videos, karaoke songs, etc.) for your loved ones. You can filter for a predetermined date, event, location or as a last message that you can schedule to post on social media to individuals, groups of friends, or family.
I hope one of these tools is useful helping you to capture your legacy.
Jim Cyr is a trained spiritual companion who helps older adults reflect on the meaning of their lives and how God has been present or absent as they face the challenges of aging and end of life.