Legacy Letters: Our Written Words Matter

Imagine yourself providing the space, time, and instruction that will allow people you’ve never met before, to write down their most personal and deeply felt life stories for their closest friends and loved ones—stories and lessons that will leave an important legacy for current and future generations. Through my work as a Legacy Letter Workshop Facilitator, I’ve been humbled and happy to be afforded the opportunity to lead groups in this meaningful and soulful activity.

Legacy letters are short documents that communicate our life experiences, values, and lessons learned to loved ones. They can be sent to designated recipients either during one’s life or upon one’s death. These letters are usually short – each only a few pages long, but they typically share our deepest feelings, important experiences, family history, or the life lessons we wish to leave behind as part of our legacy. Letters can cover an almost unlimited number of topics or experiences, which is why they are so endlessly fascinating and amazing from a historical standpoint.

I learned about legacy letters from one of the best–Rachael Freed, a renowned Legacy Letter expert and mentor. Rachael’s many books, masterful instruction, and fascinating storytelling skills were all so valuable in providing me with the grounding and material I needed to craft my own legacy letter workshops.

I came to meet Rachael somewhat by accident. I found out about her work when I was doing research for a book I was writing about handwritten letters. She was very kind in allowing me to quote some of her wonderful work in a chapter I was writing about legacy letters. We communicated over emails several times and discovered our mutual love for handwritten letters. Then, she encouraged me to join her and a group of other women in a workshop she was teaching about how to be a legacy letter workshop facilitator. I agreed to take the class not knowing if this role was really for me. As it turned out, I found the content profoundly important and deeply meaningful to me, but I would put aside what I learned in her classes for a time.

As is often the case, life intervened, and I did not pursue facilitating any workshops for several years after Rachael’s classes ended. My focus was instead on getting my own book published and then on marketing and promoting it—no small effort.

Late last year, I was surprised when I was contacted by a parish nurse from a church in Minneapolis. They were looking for someone to teach classes on legacy letter writing for their elder parishioners. Since it had been some time since I had taken Rachael’s class, I was a bit hesitant to take on this task. However, I decided it was a golden opportunity for me to try out my role as facilitator and to determine if this role was for me. So, I threw caution to the winds and agreed to try it.  

Once I began to create the workshop, I became excited about sharing general information about the history of the legacy letters, my own stories that I hoped would illuminate the workshop content through real-life examples and about reading several samples of legacy letters that I found to be incredibly moving or important. I had a feeling that hearing some examples from other writers would get participants’ creative juices flowing, and indeed, that is what happened.   

After giving participants some writing prompts, I was deeply moved as I watched a group of 20 or more elders deeply immersed in their writing. They were very focused on the task in front of them and seemed to enjoy the structured time that allowed them to write down and document some of their stories, lessons learned, or other autobiographical nuggets that they felt should be shared with loved ones.

As I sat back and watched them all scribbling away on their papers, I got a bit of a chill. I could not help but wonder what the ripple effect of their written words would be—not only on their immediate circle of family members, but on the larger world beyond. Our written words of emotional expression, wonder, love, commitment, forgiveness, support, hope, regret, and so much more are some of the most important and profound gifts we can leave behind—far more valuable than materials items or money. And a kind word, or an expression of deep love and devotion goes a long way these days. We all need to hear or read these words over and over again. The effort is never wasted. Our written words matter!

Is it possible to overstate how far the ripples of our loving words or the sharing of a deeply important life experience can go in the world? I don’t think so. Therefore, I hereby encourage all the young people out there to write a real, handwritten letter to someone you love. Tell them that you love them. Tell them why you respect them. Remind them why they are valuable to you just as they are. The recipients will be thrilled beyond measure and your effort will not be forgotten. Start with family members and expand your efforts to include friends, significant others, or anyone else you appreciate or admire.  

For the elders out there, I cannot encourage you enough to write down your own stories, no matter how “average” or “unimportant” you think they are. The truth is – they will matter deeply to someone you know—more than you can probably imagine. So, please consider ditching the technology for an hour and get writing. The results may amaze you. The present generation and posterity will most certainly thank you for it.

Lynne Kolze is the author of, “Please Write: Finding Joy and Meaning in the Soulful Art of Handwritten Letters.” Find it on Amazon, Bookshop, or Itasca Books websites.

Lynne teaches Legacy Letter Writing Workshops in the Twin Cities Metro Area. Contact her at [email protected]