Legacies

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Last month we watched a sweet romantic movie where the romantic lead challenged the girl of his dreams to see what she truly valued in life. He posed her a question: "What single item would you run to save if your house was on fire?"

Trying to figure out what is the one thing you value the most is fairly easy, people or pets in the house come first for me, but what do you save when you're not saving it for yourself?

This thought comes about through watching a completely TV show - The Hairy Bikers, Mums know Best. It's a recipe/cooking show with a twist - all the recipes are family favourites that real mothers share on the show. This week one of the mums cooking was Ruth Joseph, who has a very special story to tell. Her favourite baking tin is also her family legacy.

Ruth's mother was one of the children rescued from Nazi Germany and sent out to Britain by the Kindertransport. All she brought with her was the cake tin her mother gave her before she was taken away, but wherever she was sent her mother's cake tin went with her.

How important is a cake tin when it's all you have of your mother and your home? How much worth are the cakes that are baked, generation after generation of mothers to daughters, in such a cake tin? Pretty priceless, I'd guess!

It made me think... it's hard enough trying to choose one item to save from a burning house, but what would you save when you knew you weren't going to be saved yourself? What would you choose if you were Ruth's grandmother, knowing you were saying goodbye to your child who you'd probably never see again? What do you pick to be remembered by and to have your family remembered by? Jewels or recipes? Gold or tin?

What would you pick to be your legacy?

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