Making Memories through Legacy Projects
Many of us can relate to that feeling of coming across a letter, photo, or other memento that keeps us connected to a special person, place, or time in our lives. To hear a loved one’s voice, read their handwriting, or see their smile in a forgotten photo can be especially powerful during periods of illness or loss.
To honor a loved one’s memory, capture their spirit, and help ensure their memory stays woven into the fabric of your family forever, Frederick Health Hospice has recently begun a Legacy Project program. Funded in part by our Sunshine Fund, we hope our families will find these memory-making projects and activities to be both comforting to them and a meaningful way to honor their loved ones who have died.
For those with less energy or ability, there are legacy projects that require minimal time, cost and supplies. You can capture your loved one through brief videos, recording them singing a favorite song, or reading a story. You can take photographs of them holding hands with others in the family, capture their fingerprint, or make a tracing of their hand–all of which can be framed and treasured on their own, included in a family tree illustration, or even made into jewelry.
Easy memory-making activities are wonderful ways to involve children and teenagers in whatever ways feel comfortable to them and the adults in their lives. They can participate at the bedside as a family, in a different room, or at another location due to distance, time, or comfort level. Each person can contribute their part when gathered as a group or the separate pieces can be brought together in the future.
Legacy projects can also be created after your loved one has died in honor of Mother’s or Father’s Day, a birthday or an anniversary. Perhaps they saved copies of ultrasound images or the impression of a newborn family member’s footprint, or letters, photos, newspaper clippings, calendars, journals, awards, or certificates that reflect family history. A framed recipe card for a family favorite written in your loved one’s handwriting, or a necklace fashioned from a treasured keepsake, can commemorate an important milestone such as a graduation, religious ceremony, birth or wedding in a unique and special way
Our Legacy Project program will continue to grow thanks to the generous support of Frederick Health Hospice’s Sunshine Fund.
