Westport - “I was thinking about this today actually, and I know what you are doing is very significant. Everyone matters and everyone has a story to tell. After all, you can’t escape life no matter how hard you try, and in that lies a story,” said Westport resident and author Prill Boyle.
This was the sentiment recently expressed to Suzanne Sheridan and Rozanne Gates, the co-owners of The Legacy Project USA, a Westport-based personal history documentation company, founded in 2009. What Sheridan and Gates have concluded is that a growing number of people are looking for ways to pass along more than money and possessions to the next generation. A person’s life history, in the form of an audio or video recording, documentary photo album, or authored biography, are ways that help individuals create personal legacies for their loved ones that are beautiful and lasting. The Legacy Project USA is here to help you do that.
Gates recorded the life story of longtime Weston resident Ed Johnson in 12 hours of audio interviews. Johnson’s wife, Jeri, knew that her husband had only a very short time to live. She was intent on having her husband’s story documented and approached the Westport Public Library for a reference to a company that could help in the matter. The Westport Public Library referred her to The Legacy Project USA. A first meeting took place and the project got underway immediately. The first recording took place in July 2010. Ed Johnson passed away 5 weeks later. But, thanks to Jeri’s determination, he was able to tell his life story so his children and grandchildren would have a fuller understanding of his earlier life and why he had made some decisions he had made. Their work with The Legacy Project USA is something for which his wife and family are extremely grateful and that feeling grows with time.
Financial planner Craig Meadows of The Meadows Group for Northwestern Mutual Finance said of the services provided by The Legacy Project USA, “They have really helped me preserve memories of my family and have interviewed many of my aunts and great aunts. Now their stories are protected. I’ve heard when someone dies it is like a wing of a library closing as you lose so much information about history. Now that I’ve hired them countless times, I feel like I am stemming that tide a bit.”
In addition to the upsurge in interest in documenting life stories by the growing senior community, people are also finding creative ways to apply the services of The Legacy Project USA. Milestone events such as holidays and anniversaries are also moments to consider doing a Legacy Project. With the holidays approaching thoughts turn to the gathering of families and the inevitable giving of gifts. One gift that will have an impact for many generations to come is the life story of someone you hold dear, or consider telling your own life story so that those who are dear to you will have the benefit of your knowledge. The most important thing anyone has to give is the story of his or her own life.
“Thanks so much for coming to our home. For years, I have wanted Dad to tell me all those stories. I just never got around to it. I am so grateful, the whole family is grateful, that he felt so comfortable with you and that you got him to tell his story. It is the one treasure we will have forever,” was the reaction from Westport resident Lorraine Adams.
To contact The Legacy Project USA, visit their website at http://www.thelegacyprojectusa.com or call 203-557-0408. The holidays are almost here.
