Legacy Matters

So children can have a legacy

Last Sunday in New York City, two separate fires took the lives of three firemen.  Two of them were forced to choose between jumping for their lives or burning to death.   Four are still fighting for their lives.  Families are bereft and children are fatherless after the worst tragedy for the NYC fire department since September 11.

Yesterday, 10,000 mourners braved the bitter cold to turn out for the funeral of John Bellew.  His widow Eileen read a Letter to God that so moved the crowded church that they stood and applauded.  She worried that her four very young children would never really know their father.

"Eileen, and all of us, want the children to have a legacy. Anything. Notes, pictures, letters. Anything that will tell them who their dad really was," said brother Danny Bellew

FDNY Battalion Chief promised to keep the memory of John Bellew alive for his children with stories and pictures.  Msgr Jack O'Keefe whose father was a firefighter killed in the line of duty gave the eulogy.  He said he was raised by the NYC Fire Department and firefighters would give him stories about dad for decades.  Clearly, he expected the firefighters to do no less for the Bellew children.

For those of you not part of such a brotherhood, please consider writing each of your children a letter every year on the birthday telling them that you love them and why you are proud of them.  Consider too building your own personal legacy archives about yourself, the people you love, the music you love, the books you love, the things you love.  Tell who you really are.