LEAVING A LEGACY

​On the 9th August, my overseas sister and I were having a WhatsApp conversation which I rather enjoyed so just wanted to share. 

It all started with my sister sharing a little video of her one grandson holding a microphone at church and as carefree as any happy child could be, he was singing his little head off and dancing around.  He was born with a form of congenital cancer in one ear and after many operations and much hospital care and then a wonderful miracle, he was finally cured of the cancer, but has lost hearing in that ear, so his speech is a little delayed.  Then my sister mentioned how his older brother loves singing opera and is in a school choir, which I thought was so sweet.  I told her that I was enjoying learning more about my great nephews who I have never met and joked that I think they got their singing genes from our side of the family.  We have never forgotten listening to our daddy singing when we visited him.  We loved his singing.

One of his favourite songs was, “Born Free”… he used to cry when he sang that.  My dad suffered and struggled a lot as an orphaned child and I think he carried a lot of pain inside of him.  I fancy myself as a bath-tub opera singer, hahaa!  And my sister has a beautiful voice too and loves to write the most beautiful songs, mostly with a Christian theme.  I’ve written piles of poetry which I’d love to be put to music.  My two lullabies have already been put to music and I love those.  Used to sing them to my own children.  We love singing the songs our daddy loved, because we loved them too and they remind us of him.  "Que Sera, Sera" was another one we remember that he loved, and some Greek songs which I don’t know how to spell, so can’t share.  I wish I could add voice recordings here, but it’s just too expensive.

We started to reminisce on our favourite singers and just some of our most remembered songs that we used to love and sing as we were growing up… and some we are still singing today. 

Born free (original theme song from the film of the same name)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6aef8DTqg

Doris Day
Que Sera Sera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc

Greek singer, Nana Mouskouri… we had her record and loved every song on it.
The White Rose of Athens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlx8Y6x0nFE
I have a dream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7g54mit4qU

Demis Roussos… my sister’s husband used to sing just like him… too lovely!  
Forever and ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vCB3YBMUo
My friend the wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdNkTZitRmU

The Singing Nun (1963)
Dominique 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO7cD6qmydo

​Simon and Garfunkel
Bridge over troubled water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-YQA_bsOU
Sound of silence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAEppFUWLfc

Cliff Richard
Bachelor boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz9zusc7gqk
The young ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxNohANhJiA
Daddy’s Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJJuYpx0w2Q

Jim Reves
The Shifting Whispering Sands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgAvHo6vpe4

Roger Whittaker
Elizabethan Serenade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3-IoylSOuc
(beautiful…  my sister remembers me whistling this a lot… I have a special yodeling kind of whistle today that fascinates my grandchildren and I wonder if it was from all the practice I had when I was younger with this whistling song)

Richard Chamberlain
All I have to do is dream (Dr Kildare television series)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxpkaasgYnk

Mike Oldfield
Tubular bells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSRJvq4Wd48

The World of Max Bygraves
You're A Pink Toothbrush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-rcZh0A64s

John Denver
Annie's Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNOTF-znQyw

The Irish Rovers
The Biplane Evermore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iEf-Vn-vfE

Sara Brightman
A song she used to sing using her soprano voice… without words… I used to sing it too, but unfortunately never got the name for it.

George Frideric Handel (My sister went to a performance of Händel Messiah)
The Hallelujah Chorus Old Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssYmHpjLicg

During our WhatsApp conversation, some of the songs above were ones my sister remembered most and other’s ones I remembered most and most of them we shared our memory-love for.  I’ve only included what came up first in our conversation, but there were so many, many more we could have included as we continued to reminisce after our conversation.
 
As I put together the links to the songs above, I felt very emotional… hearing the songs took me back… not to vivid memories of any kind, but to some subconscious memories long-lost to my consciousness.  All I do know is that music used to keep us going.  To this day, if I am very overtired, or in any kind of emotional distress, very often, songs from my past will surface as my subconscious connects to a current situation that triggers a foggy past-time long ago when that song might have been a comfort or strength to me then. 

The music from our past has today left a warm and comforting legacy to our souls… I don’t know if that makes sense.

Leaving a Legacy
I was ready to go to sleep, so to finish off our WhatsApp conversation, my sister who is a devout Christian wrote:  “I am just completing a bible study on Ruth for our ladies group… how the Lord weaves a story for His glory… our tiny mark on the timeline of history leaves a legacy that may impact generations hundreds of years in the future.”

I responded: “I hope we are indeed worthy of a legacy.  I have felt invisible for most of my life, so it would be good to at least die a somebody.  How wonderful my sister.  I love you.”

My sister’s response: “You are already a somebody in God’s perspective.  He does love us to do well with our dash between birth and death.”

Me: “Yes… In Heaven’s Eyes, I KNOW without doubt I’m a somebody… but I really want to finish my life as a somebody in this world too… working hard to get there…

And I love my sister’s response to that: “Sometimes our legacy is seemingly unseen, like Sister Cecilia, she had no idea that she impacted our lives so deeply.  Some people will only find out in Heaven how Amazing their lives and legacy were.”

And then my sister wished me goodnight and I wished her a good day, because we are on opposite sides of the world.

I am grateful for all who shared with me today… thank you.

~ Panayiota