“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” George Eliot
One Halloween my mom helped me dress up like a tooth. She almost always accepted my crazy ideas and helped me bring them to fruition. She has been gone almost a decade now, but her memory will last until her last grandchild passes on, and even beyond because her essence lives in the stories I’ve captured for future generations.
Keep their memories alive. Tell your children about your grandfather the trumpeter or how your grandmother knocked someone out with her right hook (yes, those are stories of my grandpa John and grandmother Rocky, so nicknamed after the boxer).
Cook the family recipes of sauerbraten or pistachio cake.
Look at the family Bible.
Name someone Lena after their great-grandmother or Gordon after the uncle that was lost in Vietnam.
Do not forget the past, because when we do we finally lose our loved ones.