What’s a Legacy Project?
What is a Legacy Project?
Legacy Projects are an amazing way for you and your loved ones to leave something behind. A death doula can guide and support an individual and or their families in completing Legacy Projects. Legacy projects can invoke all the senses-auditory, olfactory, sensory, and visual. These keep memories of the loved ones we miss so much, alive.
What are some examples of Legacy Projects?
Examples of legacy projects can take forms and include every sense that humans can experience. These senses bring back memories of long ago. A common legacy project is an autobiography. This can be done with a physical book or even a video autobiography. However, Legacy Projects are an opportunity to connect through creativity. As a death doula, I encourage my clients to think about what matters most to them, and how it can be something their loved ones will cherish forever.
A client recently shared, “When I walked into my mother’s house three years after she passed I could still smell her perfume and it made it feel as if she was there with me again and I felt a calming that I hadn't felt in three years.” As part of a Legacy Project, a death doula might find a familiar perfume and add a photo of her mother, along with a flower from the memorial service.
Even a sports championship, like the Celtics’ recent win, can inspire a Legacy Project. If your loved ones are still with you, have them sign a favorite sports shirt or jersey of either yours or theirs. This is an example of a sight legacy project. To add smell, touch, and taste to this, make their favorite game day snack or drink, even if no one eats it, it’ll still be there as a memory. Lastly to add hearing, make a video or recording of them watching the game and when the team wins you can play that sound and remember the joy and excitement (or the frustration if it’s a loss!).
For those who enjoy cooking or baking, a recipe book both written in your loved one’s handwriting and typed can be a wonderfully meaningful gift for the whole family. Plus, creating it, invokes all the senses, reinforcing those memories for years to come.
Who benefits from a legacy project?
Who benefits from a legacy project? Short Answer: everyone. The individual benefits through reminiscing, such as pictures, music they used to dance to, and reliving stories from their past. The family benefits by sharing these memories and seeing their loved ones light up as they recall them. The family may also learn something they never knew about their loved ones. Past loves, past troubles, former joys, these may have slipped through the cracks as the children grew, but mean more now that the rest of the family is older. The community can benefit from a legacy project as well. The community can be as large as one can imagine or also could be a benefit to those that worked as a team to give him a “good death”, such as hospice workers, social workers, home health care workers, and nurses so that they may get to see their client’s full life and can put faces to the people in their stories.
How can a death doula help with a Legacy Project?
A death doula can help as little or as much as you’d like with a Legacy Project. They can brainstorm ideas and help facilitate the creation of the project. Legacy Projects are one of my favorite ways to support clients and their loved ones, reaching out to learn more about the projects we can embark on together.