At a memorial service for a friend in a park down by the sea
as we remembered her I wondered…how will people remember me?
I imagine most of the people at the memorial…from her friends to her family members
were thinking a similar thought…how do I want to be remembered?
This is a simple question…but its ripples extend quite far…
because how we choose to answer…determines who we are.
The following night our daughter texted us…asking if we’d like to meet
her and a group of her friends…at a pub just down the street.
So off we went to join our daughter and her friends in a great old neighborhood bar
where we drank, we laughed, we sang songs like Piano Man
accompanied by Shamus on his guitar.
And as I sat next to Deborah watching Ali and her friends so loving and carefree
I realized in that pub…how I’d like people to remember me.
When I look back on my life…from child to parenthood
I don’t need to be remembered for being great…
but I’d like to be remembered for being good.
For being a good person…the best good person that I can…
A good husband, teacher, father, grandfather, a good friend…a good man.
I think I would be happy…when I reach my final day…
If everyone who remembers me…remembers me this way.
Yes, I thought of a good way I’d like to be remembered…in the Irish Pub that night
That people will think of me whenever they’re in the mood for a melody…
and remember…how I always left them feeling alright.
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