How will Future Generations Remember You?
Let them re-live your memories by leaving a visual legacy!
What is a Visual Legacy?
Your visual legacy can be described as all of the visual elements that you have collected in your lifetime which represent your life story. This may include photos, videos, memorobilia and audio recordings. Leaving a visual legacy enables your family and future generations to connect to your life story after you're gone. A visual legacy allows them to cherish you and your history, keeping your memory alive. A visual legacy is essentially an archive, which captures moments and milestones that you have experienced during your lifetime.
Why is Preserving Your Legacy Important?
Preserving your history is a great way to celebrate your life. The process of curating it is a great reminiscence activity. It can promote cognitive stimulation and increase well-being. Additionally, it leavesyour family and future generations something truly special to treasure and remember you by. Not many people can tell the story of their great, great grandparents. Leaving a legacy doesn't have to be about money or accomplishments - a lasting legacy is simply about you and your stories.
When to Get Started?
It's never too early or too late to start putting together your life story. You never know what could happen in life. Some people get diagnosed with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, which causes them to forget the memories they'd want to share with future generations. If you have a visual legacy started before cognitive decline appears, it can serve as a gift for future generations. But it can also serve as a powerful reminiscence tool. Additionally, it can help future care staff provide high quality, person-centered care.
How To Leave A Visual Legacy
Digitally Backup Analog Photos
Your visual legacy has to be orderly, easy to access and safely stored. For example, if you have hundreds of old analog photos it can be difficult to preserve and organize them all. The best way to do this is to pick your best memories from childhood, your teenage years and adulthood. Then, back them up in a digital format (find out how to organize & digitize your images here).
Add Descriptions & Timestamp Your Images
Adding descriptions and timestamps to your photos can bring them to life. A way of doing this is by adding metadata to images to put them in context for future generations to understand. Your smartphone or digital camera may automatically add date, time and location but there is always more to the story and old photos need that context and content.
Narrate Your Favorite Memories
Care management software like StoriiCare can also be used to create narrated memories for those in care settings. This allows service users, staff or families to record the story behind a photograph and build a solid archive of historical images complemented with digital memoirs.
Use the Power of Video
Video can be a powerful tool to use as a way of preserving your legacy. The goal is to get into a habit of recording major life events. For example it could be your wedding, graduation, anniversaries or even practicing your favorite sport. Another idea is to ask a family member to interview you in a personal video recorded in your home and document the things you would like future generation to know. All in all, videos are brilliant and photos and audio recordings are just as important. Therefore, we believe that multi-media storytelling is the best way to immortalize your legacy.
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