Legacy

I sometimes think how I would like to be remembered when I am gone. This seems particularly significant now, in 2017, when a man was elected president of the United States, and with this has come a legacy of corruption and indecency.

I want to be remembered as a good person who stood on the side of justice. In a world where our president is a bully and liar, I want to be recalled as someone with impeccable integrity, one who spoke the truth, and dared to defend the truth in the world. I want to be thought of as a defender of human rights and righteousness. I want people to say, Pam was not afraid to call the emperor naked. I want people to remember that though I liked good food and travel, that money was never what guided me, but humanity and decency. 

I hope my children will think about the values I raised them with and integrate these values into the lives of their children. I want my children and grandchildren to think of me with humor, affection and passion: these, too, are part of my legacy. And how much I value family-intimacy, communication, friendship, being a good wife, a good parent. These, too, have been an integral part of my value system.

I plan on being around a very long time; I would like to be around to see how Ella grows up, and to celebrate all the occasions that go with this. But it is critical to make every day a valuable day, so that if tomorrow I were to blow off into the wind, I could think I have left my imprint on the world-and it is a good one for which I will be remembered by those who knew and loved me!