January 13, 2025 • 57 mins
"Part of the aging process is to capture all those stories." - Mark Turnbull
Host, Mark Turnbull and special guest, Zoe Martin dive into a heartfelt and thought-provoking conversation about the power of preserving personal stories and family legacies. Zoe opens up about her own journey, sharing how her sister's battle with cancer inspired her to create meaningful legacy projects that capture memories through audio and video.
Together, they explore how technology makes it easier than ever to document family histories and how music can evoke powerful emotions tied to remembrance.They also reflect on the simple yet profound impact of epitaphs in cemeteries, the significance of tangible keepsakes, and how names shape our personal histories. Throughout the discussion, Mark and Zoe invite listeners to think about their own family stories, the connections that nourish us, and the legacies we all hope to leave behind.
This conversation will inspire you to take meaningful steps toward preserving your history and passing it on to future generations.
Learn more about Zoe Martin: https://www.thezoemartin.com/
Special shout out to https://www.bridgebreast.org/
Thank you to our sponsor: Royal Hospice Oregon
#legacy #storytelling #familyhistory #storytelling
Host, Mark Turnbull and special guest, Zoe Martin dive into a heartfelt and thought-provoking conversation about the power of preserving personal stories and family legacies. Zoe opens up about her own journey, sharing how her sister's battle with cancer inspired her to create meaningful legacy projects that capture memories through audio and video.
Together, they explore how technology makes it easier than ever to document family histories and how music can evoke powerful emotions tied to remembrance.They also reflect on the simple yet profound impact of epitaphs in cemeteries, the significance of tangible keepsakes, and how names shape our personal histories. Throughout the discussion, Mark and Zoe invite listeners to think about their own family stories, the connections that nourish us, and the legacies we all hope to leave behind.
This conversation will inspire you to take meaningful steps toward preserving your history and passing it on to future generations.
Learn more about Zoe Martin: https://www.thezoemartin.com/
Special shout out to https://www.bridgebreast.org/
Thank you to our sponsor: Royal Hospice Oregon
#legacy #storytelling #familyhistory #storytelling
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It jogs my member with my dad, you know, growing up, I really resented that he was in the military.
(00:06):
He was gone a lot.
Uh-huh.
Man, that stunk.
I knew when I got married, I was not going to marry somebody who was in the military
because I wanted somebody to be with me.
And now I work back.
Well, the hard part about that is similar to what you're saying, not giving your dad credit.
I have letters.
I have so many letters that he wrote me personally.
(00:28):
Yeah.
Well, he was gone.
We wanted you with us, you know, but that was his job and his job took him away and it wasn't,
you know, by choice that he wasn't with us.
It was how he provided.
So, you know, I took that for granted.
And now the podcast we're together, we discuss proactive aging on your terms,
(00:56):
connecting to the professional advice of our special guests while creating better days
throughout the aging process.
Now here's your host, Mark Turnbull.
All right, hello, everyone, and welcome back to another lively discussion on aging today.
We are the podcast where together we're exploring the many options to aging on your terms.
(01:18):
You can find aging today and our eight years of past programs on our website.
All you got to do is type in aging today, dot us.
That's aging today, dot us.
And I want to say thank you every one of you that tune in every week to listen to our lively
discussions on the aging process.
And I know today you will find as many nuggets in this conversation as you have in all of our past
(01:46):
conversations.
So, as we always say, if you're not too busy being born, you're too busy aging.
And the neat thing about aging is as we age, we gain all this life experience, we gain all these
adventures. And you know, when we get towards the end of our lives, we want to preserve those
(02:09):
adventures for the next generation.
So that's what we're going to be talking about today.
And here to guide us down that path is an expert in that.
Her name is Zoe Martin.
She's the founder of Zoe Martin.
Is that what it is?
Zoe Martin of Zoe Martin.
And is that in my clothes?
(02:30):
In your clothes is the Zoe Martin.
The like the Ohio State University.
And it's the Zoe Martin.
Yes, just like that.
Perfect, perfect. And your photographer, a videographer, and a graphic designer, and you've
developed websites.
But more importantly, what we're going to be talking about today is your adventure into
(02:54):
building legacies.
And I'm very excited about that because part of the aging experience is to be able to capture all
those stories.
I remember as a kid growing up, I would sit down in the presence of my grandparents and my great
grandfather.
And they began to tell stories.
(03:16):
And it was there, they were amazing.
They were stories in logging camps.
They were stories, you know, fishing with dynamite.
I mean, all the things that you can't do today, they did it.
So I'm very excited about all of this.
So let's, let's begin.
So what, what we do, Zoe is we always want to know a little bit about yourself.
(03:38):
We want to know what's in your story, your personal story, what brought you to this place
where you began to capture legacy.
But before you started capturing legacy, tell us a little bit about your story.
Perfect.
Well, first of all, I want to thank you for allowing me to be here as a guest.
(04:00):
I appreciate that opportunity. It's actually my sister story that I'm going to be sharing because
that's how I, I ventured from what I was previously doing with my photo and video into creating
legacies for people.
So, verse, I also want to mention that I think it's super cool, the stories that you were able
to sit around and have with your family, that grandparents and great grandparents, those,
(04:24):
did you all capture those?
Like, is there any audio work?
No, I don't.
Some, we got some audio of my great-grandfather.
He was actually interviewed by the local TV station here up at camp 18.
It's literally a restaurant and nestled in the coast range.
(04:45):
And it's a legacy towards the logging industry.
So there's a lot of machinery outside the restaurant.
The tables are all made out of dug fur that have been cut around the area.
So it was, it's a great little setting.
It's still in existence.
You can, when you come to Oregon, you definitely got to take a peek at camp 18.
(05:07):
But that's where my grandfather, my great-grandfather, he grew up in the logging industry.
He was on trains.
He was burned badly and almost lost his life in a train wreck as they were moving logs
from the mountains down to the sea.
So those are, that's just one of many, many stories.
(05:30):
And some of those have been captured on back in the cassette tape days.
And we need to transfer those overs for sure.
Yes, definitely, because you want to be able to preserve those for future generations.
You know, I don't know, do you have children?
Yeah, yeah, I've got three boys.
(05:52):
Okay.
Christina's got three girls and we're blended family and we are the Brady bunch.
Yeah, everybody thinks that I'm sure.
As soon as you say three girls and three boys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or fantastic.
Well, I'm going to back up a little bit to telling you a little bit about me.
There's a big family.
(06:13):
I'm the oldest.
And with that, I have three little sisters.
And then brother is in heaven.
And then another brother is in Australia.
So we're all over the place.
When we were growing up, we, you know, had family photos, but not a lot.
(06:33):
And then, well, I'm not going to get the year right because we just transferred years here.
But on 2023, my sister Christina had battled breast cancer for five years.
And on Christmas eve of that year, I was, I was beside her with my head on her mattress when she passed away.
(06:54):
And that hit me very hard.
She was only 40 years old.
And so we had planned the four of us sisters were going to be together.
And I had hired a photographer to come in to, to be with my sisters and I so we could get
professional portraits before she passed away.
But at that point, she was in hospice care.
(07:15):
And she couldn't, she couldn't get up.
She was very weak.
She had oxygen.
She was sitting in the bed and she couldn't lie down or she would have drowned in her fluids.
She had no hair and she just, she looked so frail.
And I contacted the photographer and I said she doesn't want to be remembered like this.
(07:36):
And we canceled that.
So I'll never have the opportunity to have those photos.
She had one child and she wanted to record milestone videos of what, you know, would be
my niece would be able to have these milestone videos after my sister was gone.
And my sister at that time had someone who was recording podcasts and was going to be able to
(08:01):
record them.
Christina told me that she had recorded these podcasts.
And then after she passed away, we found out that either my sister Christina had chemo
brain and thought she did or the person who recorded them, I don't know what she did with them.
And so we'll never have the opportunity to have those.
The other thing that happened, I was just this culmination with my sister.
(08:25):
While she was in hospice, she was asleep, woke up and clearly just Zoe, go get the letters.
I thought, oh my goodness, we had gotten the breast cancer diagnosis of stage four when she was
35 years old. So five years, you know, we thought she was going to live forever.
(08:45):
Five years, we knew that this was coming and I'd forgotten about the letters.
So I picked them up. I came to her bedside.
I opened them up and then my heart broke.
She hadn't written any of them.
Our sister Cecilia had created stationary artwork, but none of them had been written.
And at this point, my sister couldn't hold her cup.
(09:08):
There was no way she was going to be able to write letters. So I grabbed my phone and I said,
here's what we're going to do, sweetheart, I'm going to record you.
So you say, whatever you want to say, we're going to worry about getting pen to paper later.
So I recorded two videos.
She fell asleep and the third video I recorded, we can hardly understand what she's saying.
Her voice is just so weak. And she didn't wake up to record again.
(09:31):
Yeah, that was really tough. After the celebration of life, I went to my niece and I said,
I got something for you.
And I gave her the letters and explained I didn't want to write in them.
I didn't feel like that was my place, but that I had recorded these videos.
So we started to watch the videos and the dog is at the foot of the bed.
As soon as Tiki heard Christina's voice, she whipped her head around.
(09:54):
And where is she?
And then my niece and I really broke down.
And that is the power of the voice, having those recordings,
you know, that audio so that you recognize those people through their voice.
I mean, handwriting is powerful too.
So that created the business pivot for me to now create like a cease-forever with people.
(10:15):
I'm not going to be able to get those back, but I can do something about future generations.
Yeah. Was there any other family photos when you guys were going up that you were able to acquire?
And then, you like a scrapbooker? I mean, do you take...
How does all that work today? In today's world because there's a lot of electronics.
(10:39):
And how do you dub tail all those?
Yeah. Well, what's crazy about that is because I do photo and video,
I wanted to create the slideshow presentation for my sister celebration of life.
And we accumulated almost 800 photos of her and all of the things that she'd done.
(11:00):
So we had, you know, a lot of physical prints, but a combination with digital.
And so I put together a slideshow. Yes, scrapbooking is something that I have done.
And currently you could do digital scrapbooking, but for me right now,
with legacy projects, you have the opportunity to create slideshows, photo albums. We could do stories.
(11:25):
There's this huge opportunity of things that we can do at Big Embralla.
Yeah, yeah. And we started doing a little bit of that. My dad passed away two years ago.
And that was kind of the impetus we took all of the slides. I mean, that was the generation when,
you know, dad was always taking pictures. Yes.
(11:45):
And everything was slides. Yes.
Hardly any prints. And so we then digitally recorded all of those going all the way back to the 1950s.
Wow. Wow. Did you have the sheet? Like you would put the sheet up on the wall and the family would come
and gather around for a family videos? Oh, no. You mean like a bed sheet?
(12:07):
Yeah, where you would put it on the wall and you would have family movie time?
Oh, no. We had a screen actually, dad had one of those portable screens. And then we, he had a,
a video, you know, a super eight or whatever, those were those cameras, movies. So we have
combination of movies and stills. And, but again, you have to preserve them. And because if you don't,
(12:29):
the, the film will deteriorate and then you lose all of the, the quality of that film as well.
Yes. We actually had that happen with our family. My husband and I have been married almost 30 years
in March. And, um, five or six years ago, I contacted a friend who she restored, um,
(12:49):
home movies. And we had taken the videos to someone else like those eight millimeter films.
And this company was well recognized. They were on the strip in Longview. And, uh, they said there
was nothing they could do that the film had actually stuck together. And they, they wouldn't be able to
separate it. So I took it to my friend and she was like, uh, actually we, we're going to be able to
(13:12):
save most of this. You're going to lose some, but not, not a lot. And sure enough, um, she dehydrated it.
And then right after the dehydration process started, um, to record. And so we have them now on a
flash drive and I have them backed up in computer. And so, yeah, I definitely highly encourage people
to back that stuff up. If you need recommendations, I'm more than happy to share who I know.
(13:35):
Yeah. That sounds good. That sounds good. So one of the things that I really enjoyed doing is
visiting cemeteries. I know that sounds really kind of morbid, but the thing that I love about
cemeteries is that there's a legacy that has been captured. It's captured in stone. And it's not as
(13:55):
detailed, but it's kind of fun to imagine. You know, that's what I do when I go in and I love the
epitats. And I, if I could say to anybody out there, you know, I know today is, we're kind of changing our
paradigm. How we're, we're leaving this world. We're doing a lot of cremation as opposed to burial.
And the thing I like about burial is that you get to carve your epitat in stone and it's there for
(14:22):
generations. When you do cremation, that's the one downside to cremation is, well, it's nice to know
that that they cast my ashes across the seas or in the high mountains or whatever romantic place
you have in mind. You know, so, but there's no way to capture that legacy. That's the downside.
(14:46):
Yeah, yeah. And I think it's important to having someone help you, you know, not just at the epitaph,
although that's wonderful. And I totally agree. Like, I love to read the dates to know how old they were
and get a visual of what that might have looked like, you know, their short life or their really
long life. But having someone help you with verbiage when you're creating is not a bio. At the end of life,
(15:13):
you've got that obituary written out. You don't have someone who's good with words, create that for you.
But what's really important is what you've done with your life so that they can create,
you know, and share what you've accomplished and what kind of a legacy you did leave behind.
Yeah, yeah, really, really important. And we went to Scotland this summer, this sidebar,
(15:38):
but we went to Scotland because that's our heritage. And so we wanted to learn more about the
Turnbull family. And so we ended up going to the little community that the Turnbulls were originated,
you know, goes all the way back to the King Bruce. And it's an interesting story. But when we were
(15:58):
visiting some of the cemeteries there, they approach it so much differently. It's really interesting.
Not many epitats on the stones themselves. It was usually just like the beginning date and the end date.
And that was it. And for most of now there was some that, you know, they had lengthy things, you know,
(16:21):
on there. And then some of the older ones weren't well kept, so it was hard to read, you know,
the epitats that were there. But I find that to be fascinating. Yeah, that is interesting.
Yeah. And so what we did for our folks for my mom and dad was we put a stone together
(16:42):
because they wanted to be buried. And, you know, we took all the symbols of what they accomplished
in life, what they did, like my dad was a school teacher. He was an architect and industrial design.
He was also a Christmas tree grower. My mom was a chamber of commerce and she ran, she was the
(17:05):
president of the chamber of commerce. And she also owned a bookstore. So we put all of those
symbols so that the epit, you know, people would know from generations later, you know, who these people
are. What did they do? You know, I thought that was kind of interesting to do. Yeah. I had you seen that
somewhere else, who came up with that idea? We just kind of, you know, my curiosity with
(17:31):
cemeteries. And so I think you got to tell the, I'm big on story. And our lives are nothing but a
story. That's all they are. There, there are story. And it's really interesting when you
approach life that way from the story perspective, it's just nothing but adventure after adventure.
(17:54):
And the more interesting your story is means that you took more adventures, you took more risks.
And that's why I always tell people, you know, don't be so conservative. Don't be so shy and
bashful. Just get out there and try new things. Yeah. It's an adventure.
Well, you know, you, I don't know, you can see this. I'm tearing up here. I'm just thinking
(18:17):
after my sister passed away, her and I didn't listen to the same genres of music, but I was like,
okay, I went to my niece and I said, I want to know like all her favorite songs. I want to of course
have those in the celebration of live video that we created. And one of the songs that's called
Unwritten. And that's basically what you're saying, you know, your, your life is a story. And,
(18:41):
and today is not written. So you are the opportunity to get that pen to paper. What are you,
what are you going to do with your life? What is your story? Write it. Yeah. Yeah. Take,
and take a risk. Step out on a limb. You know, the old adage is, you know, never be afraid to
to go out on the limb because that's where the fruit is. You know, if you, if you sit where it's safe,
(19:03):
you know, you get, you're going to have a pretty boring story. You're going to have a pretty boring
legacy. There's, well, what are, what are people going to talk to you? Have something really
interesting. You know, we went to my wife and I when we first met, there was a family reunion on
her side down in Sacramento. So we went down there and there her maiden name was Hange. And it's,
(19:27):
I think it's, it's Swiss Italian. And they had a story that was a newspaper that,
would, they had copied and printed out. They went to the archives and found this story about her
great grandparents and on the hangy side. And there was a murder. And it was like very fascinating
(19:52):
story. I'm not, and again, I'm not saying quite. They're in emergency, buddy, to, to, to build a great
legacy. But, but what a great story to be able to share from generations down the road where she
ended up the wife ended up, you know, killing her husband because he was abusive or something like
that. But, but again, it's flavorful. It's a story. It tells you a little bit about, hey, we have
(20:18):
the same problems today as they had two, three hundred years ago. So, you know, we just play them out
a little bit differently. Oh, that reminds me. I was just speaking to someone. She writes stories.
She's ghostwriter, her families and individuals. And she was, you know, explaining how she started
(20:40):
in another country. German, she was in New Zealand. And, and the histories that what she found out was
people who had known history had accomplished more for their lives because they were able to look
back on, on that genealogy and know the stories. And they just, it encouraged them to do more, to be more
(21:07):
and that people who didn't have their family story or didn't know their family history,
that they didn't accomplish as much in their own lives. Yeah. Yeah. That's powerful. Yeah, it really is.
It really is. So, I want to learn, learn a little bit about what some of the things you've learned as
you begin to capture stories from other people and primarily from yourself. You know, the
(21:30):
the Ampetus was, is it Christina or Christina? Christina. And, you know, that was, that was a, the
cattle prod that got you moving forward and creating a business and creating an opportunity to
help others capture their legacies as well. So, is, is there any legacies or any stories that have been
(21:56):
outstanding for you that really stick out in your mind as you get to know people?
The most interesting one so far has been the one I did recently. A friend of mine,
I was sharing my struggle with her with losing my sister. And in all honesty, she was
(22:17):
she's learning, she's taking a hoating course. And she's asking me questions. And because of her
prodding, I decided that I wanted this to be where my business was focused now, to just creating
legacy because before it was photo and video, but it was personal branding, beauty portrait headshots.
(22:37):
It didn't have as much value to me as what I'm doing now. Now, this is my purpose. And because of her
prodding, through sharing my story, she in turn shared hers with me. She had a sister who also had gotten
cancer diagnosis. She'd gone through chemo and radiation. So there was that struggle. She has,
(22:58):
I think, three sisters and then a niece, a daughter and her mother had four children. Her mother
is completely deaf. All of the kids were hearing. So that, I mean, that's a very interesting story.
The things that they could tell, how does a deaf mom raise children who are completely hearing?
(23:19):
I can imagine all the trouble those kids must have been. So we actually photographed all three
of those generations together. And she is sharing with me how each of these people are meaningful in
her life. And then she created adjectives for each of them. And at this, at the legacy session that
(23:41):
we did for them, she presented them and they didn't know this was going to happen. She presented them
each with a t-shirt and had the adjective across their chest. And it was a beautiful moment to see
their reactions and hear the reasons that she chose these, what she did. And then hers was grateful.
And it was, it was beautiful just to hear and see and watch that unfold in front of me and the
(24:05):
emotions that we captured. It was beautiful. I just, I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Comment a little bit about
why it's so important for us to capture stories or, and I guess, and legacy. You know, maybe we should
define legacy. What is a legacy? Why is it so important to have a legacy that carries on for generations
(24:29):
into the future? Wow. That's, that's a great question. And I feel, if for me, it's, it's a heart,
your story really is your legacy. It's how you've lived your life. Why did you make the choices
that you made? Who impacted those, those choices? And, and how did you then, in turn, impact other people?
(24:54):
And what, what are you leaving behind? And I think we take that for granted when making choices a
lot of times where we're, we're just worried about ourselves and we're worried about the, the moment
at, you know, credit cards, you know, immediate gratification. But if we, if we look into the future,
and what is going to be left, who's going to say, what about me after I'm gone? And I think the most
(25:19):
important thing about these, these legacy sessions is the opportunity for people to tell their
own story and to tell that in their own words. Because if you're not telling your story, somebody
else is going to tell it. And is it, is that the way that you want to be remembered? So, you know,
take that into consideration when you're making, you know, decisions that don't be so short term,
(25:40):
thinking the long, what's, what's going to be remembered about you when you're gone?
You know, what I find fascinating when we're sitting around the dinner table and we start
telling stories from the past. It's interesting how my brother, I'm got three brothers and a sister.
So there's five of us kids and it's really interesting how we all experience the same event.
(26:02):
But each of us has our own story about how that event unfolded.
Exactly. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, and to put all those stories together,
whether you do it, odd, do just an audio recording or I think video is my absolute favorite media
because that captures emotion. It captures tone. Have you ever read a text message or a written one
(26:27):
that was misconstrued? Because you didn't have the, the intonation, right? And so when you're like, "Oh,
hey, backup, you know, that's not what I meant or that's not how I meant for you to understand it."
So when you've got that audio or the video, you can capture the tone and the inflection and the
reactions. I love that. I think that's valuable. Yeah. I want you to, I'm going to, I'm going to read
(26:52):
a couple of things. I've been putting a lot of thought to story over the years and I just, I think
that it's really important that all of us begin to contemplate process, think about your own story
and think about the legacy that you want to leave to your children and to their, your grandchildren
(27:13):
and your great-grandchildren and on and on it goes. Because you never know. Sometimes you, you may think
that your story is lost or it's boring, but who knows? It could be made into a movie 400 years from now
or 200 years from now. You never know, right? I mean, we're, we're making movies of, of people that
(27:36):
have done extraordinary things that were forgotten and then all of a sudden their story somehow surfaced
and it was brought to the screen. So with that, if you really want to get to know somebody,
you need to know their story. And I think you got to take the time to really get to know your,
(27:58):
and ask questions from your grandparents, ask questions from your parents, you know,
and begin to write some of those things down. Is it, would that be a good starting place?
Absolutely. And I think, you know, we're a little older, I mean, you're older than I am, but
as you get older, you realize the importance of those moments and when you're younger, you're so
(28:24):
focused on yourself, right? Yeah, yeah. You don't think about these conversations that you're having with
your older generations, even your aunts and your uncles, your cousins for heaven's sakes, we all
have these, these things that we want to share, but people aren't asking us. And you don't want to just
start talking and you sound braggish. So when you have the opportunity to ask questions, you don't know,
(28:49):
Thanksgiving, Christmas just happened, right? We were around the family table with these people who
held meaning and value to us and chances are we didn't have deep meaningful conversations. So
what if you created a time, even it could be, you know, a video chat because you're not actually physically
together, but record it and capture those ask questions. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to be used to putting
(29:15):
out a blog ever lasting legacy media where we have some scripts, not necessarily scripts,
but questions, thought provoking questions that you can ask so you can do this yourself. I don't
want anybody to miss. Of course, what I do is a paid service and it's an opportunity where we're
going to deep dive and get needy gritty and provide a service with hair and makeup and video
(29:41):
production. But if you want to do this on your own and not have all those perks, you totally can
and you should. I think it's important, it's important for everybody. Did you know that it only takes
three generations to lose a piece of oral family history, according to Aaron Holt of the National
Archives and Records Administration? That means that the stories that define your family's triumphs,
(30:04):
struggles and values are at risk of being forgotten. Imagine the regret of losing those memories
forever or the joy of your children and grandchildren reliving the stories that shaped them.
Which will your family experience? This did you know segment was brought to you by this week's guest
and sponsored by Royal Hospice Oregon? Yeah, the second thing that I want to bring up to you
(30:28):
and I want you to comment on of why it is so important to you know to capture our story, our life
stories and continue to carry that legacy forward is that stories nourish us. What are some of the
thoughts that come through when you hear how stories can nourish us as individuals? Yeah and nourishment
(30:54):
is food, right? Yeah. It's we're ingesting nourishment. We're taking it in and we're feeding our
souls. You know, you've talked about some of your family history and sharing your wife's family
history and so taking that into account of what that's going to do for your future generations,
(31:16):
how are they going to look back on that? I have a great grandfather, the first Mexican American to
graduate Baylor Medical School and I have stories thanks to my great-grand uncle. He actually
wrote a family history and so we know when he first you know started in I think it was mission it may
have been MacKallon, south, south Texas that he didn't always accept cash for payment because people
(31:43):
didn't have it and so chickens or eggs or goats you know whatever they had that was payment. Who does that
today? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a that's a foreign concept. I mean people don't understand that but
that was how they how they survived that was how they traded and it wasn't with a dollar bill or
(32:05):
a coin it was with real live animals. And if you didn't know you know if someone hadn't recorded that
your your children, your grandchildren, I wouldn't have known so I think that's it's valuable. Yeah,
yeah, you know when I think of how stories nourish me I think about you know how would they strengthen
(32:26):
me because that's what nourishment does is it gives me strength and when we're going through a
dark period in our own lives there's many times when I've looked back to the past to gain the strength
from the stories of my parents or my grandparents you know I the the older I get and since my dad has
(32:49):
passed it's really interesting when he was alive I probably didn't give him the credit that he deserved
for the accomplishments that he made in life and oh my goodness I began to ponder those things
and I was going he had to work he had so little to work with but yet he accomplished so much in his
(33:12):
lifetime and he did it quietly he did it without fanfare and I I love that because that nourishes
me that strengthens me when I think about what he accomplished what my grandfather accomplished would
his parents accomplished and how that has made me into the person that I am today so I I'm
(33:37):
firm believer that capturing story capturing that legacy nourishes us as it strengthens us
yeah thanks for sharing that it it jogs my member with my dad you know growing up
I really resented that he was in the military because he was gone a lot uh-huh man at that stunk I
(33:57):
I knew when I got married I was not gonna marry somebody who was in the military because I wanted
somebody to be with me and now I work back well the hard part about that is similar to what you're
saying not giving your dad credit I have letters I have so many letters that he wrote me personally
yeah while he was gone we wanted you with us you know but that was his job and his job took him away
(34:21):
and that it wasn't you know by choice that he wasn't with us it was how he provided so you know
I took that for granted yeah but but the thing is that those are in your mind and these are the
things that strengthen us they nourish us even after they're gone and that's why there's some it's
so important to to capture that legacy to capture their stories and to be able to pass them on from
(34:47):
generation to generation you know one of the things that Zoe that I'm most concerned about is
you and I grew up in a time frame where family was at the center of everything and that's where
the stories were told around the dinner table with family and I've one of the the the mishaps of our
(35:08):
culture moving away from family you know today is that you know a lot of people listen
have they listen to us have this conversation they can't even relate because they don't have a family
they think about that I mean that's really kind of sad yeah and why we need to get back to building
(35:32):
families and the family structure why it's so important to be at the center of our lives you know
that reminds me when I lived I lived in the same city my sister lived four of the five years she had
cancer and in those four years we we were within 20 minutes at one point we lived five minutes apart
from each other and we didn't set a dedicated time to be together and that's a regret that I have
(35:58):
I know someone else that every Sunday their family got together and because they were close and so
I think that's one of the things even now we even though we're close we're not intentionally
purposefully saying every Sunday or every Friday night or whatever and that's one of the things
I'm super grateful for like you said my kids and I my husband we've got three children and they're
(36:22):
all adults now but every Friday or Saturday we made pizza from scratch the dough the sauce everything
and it was it's a it's a fantastic memory for us we had family time and we played games or we
watched a movie together it was our time to be together and you know we will always be able to
look back on that and I have some photos and things from that so one other thing that since you're
(36:48):
bringing the salt about families and family tables if you have a family and you've got young children
undoubtedly you've got a routine a bedtime routine a morning routine some kind of routine with them
capture that that is another huge regret I have we had a bedtime routine me and the kids would
jump in one of the beds together and we would read a story until my older so probably 15 years old
(37:14):
so the older they got the stories progressed but we read a story together and then there was a good night
like and I love you and there was a different I love you for each of my kids and that was in exchange
that we had and I don't have any audio or video no photos nothing to remember that other than my
(37:34):
memory so that's something I'm going to be writing down because that's I love that memory when you
were describing that I was thinking about myself as a as a young child and my mom was a voracious reader
and I'm not I'm not so certain I was a voracious reader but I loved sitting there as a young child
(37:56):
as she began to read you know books to us at night and those are fond memories and I can still picture
my siblings and we're all sitting around in our pajamas as she's reading the wind in the willows
I don't know if that's a story and the other one was the mouse in the motorcycle those those were
two stories that really had an impact on me growing up and they have fond memories the one thing that
(38:24):
that I've been looking throughout the house is those two books because she had them and I don't know
where they are and those are those are really important items if if that's a story that you read over
and over and over again to your children hang on to those books don't let them go because someday
(38:48):
when the children get older like myself may it may take 50 or 60 years down the road but they're
going to go though it's going to bring up those memories so you're going to want to keep those books
yeah 100% and I with my creative side I'm like okay so you you find these books and then you can write
(39:08):
that you know the memories and then you can include that in a note inside the cover so that as
that book gets passed down they'll have oh my word this is the book that you know great grandmother
used to read to grandpa and you knew yeah I mean you had there's so many opportunities to create that
legacy and we miss them yeah yeah yeah those those are really really important so
(39:32):
walk through if if I were to come to you and and say you know Zoe I've got all these stories
there some of them in my head some of them are in pictures and stills and some of them are in
videos you know super eights or whatever they are walk me through the process of how to begin to
(39:56):
organize that legacy that I want to pass on to the next generations that's fantastic you've got
a lot of stuff that we're going to pull together yeah so I need to know what it is how much it is
for instance some families aren't as blessed as our family where we have a ton I mean I have an
(40:18):
entire shoe box full of those eight millimeter tapes so that is hours upon hours of recordings right
so do you have a shoe box full do you have three shoe boxes full or do you just have two or three
so I need to know how much we're looking at same thing with photos you know we had almost 800 photos
of my sister by her 40th birthday but not every family does then again we also had the the physical
(40:45):
photos that needed to be scanned in and then we had the digital photos and then you've got the
quality of the images are we talking about I'm going to need to help you restore the photos or are
they a good enough quality that we can actually use them as is how many do we have do you have them
or are we gathering them from multiple sources because if we're gathering from different locations
(41:09):
and different people we've got to have a source location where we can accumulate all of this together
your written stories are are you the one that has those and have they already been written
or are you going to need to write those do you want to have an oral history do you want to have
(41:30):
these transcribed are we going to create a slideshow are we going to create the videos of you telling
this history are we going to do this to to an audio track with a voiceover are other people
going to be involved in the process do you also want to have a photo session where we you know end
(41:50):
this with you know this is our current family it's very involved and it's customized because there
are it's different for everybody we can go so far as to create a book at absolutely I encourage
wall art because that you remember when you grew up you had family photos hung on the wall that's
(42:11):
such a rareity now and so I actually do wall art customized and then I do the installation as well
I don't know if that answered your question but it's it's cumulative and it kind of it's
dependent on everyone's situation yeah and and you've created a business out of this as well so
(42:33):
that you can you know from all the experiences you've had you can walk people through the process
tell them the things that they need to do and when it comes to capturing a lot of the pictures
and putting them into a slideshow one of the things that I really enjoy doing is is finding out
(42:56):
some of the favorite music like we did that with my dad we took his favorite music and applied those
to the slideshow for his memorial service right and you know so talk a little bit about
a memorial service and what are some of the creative things that you've seen people do that you know
will honor and you know the the life of of that individual
(43:22):
mmm that's that's wonderful when you know like you were talking about the music and choosing the
music based on what your dad liked I think that's one of the things funeral parlors funeral
services get wrong is they just put in some kind of emotional elevator music you know
yeah yeah whereas that doesn't speak to who that person was it's it's just you know sadness
(43:48):
and I don't know that a lot of people are I guess that's something else you want to find out too
were these people cheerful happy exciting people or were they melancholy dramatic sorrowful people
finding out what genre of music they liked it can be really meaningful to you as well because
(44:12):
that will bring up memories when so and so used to listen to those specific songs you know when you
were in the car and they started singing along or they danced with you in the kitchen to that kind of
thing you know but for me one of the things that was really impactful at my grandmother's funeral
she's a Mexican we're 100% Mexican grandma wore a monthia which is a veil over her head
(44:40):
and I didn't know this until I was 40 maybe late 30s she always wanted a pink monthia
and so for her next birthday I gave her a pink monthia well at the funeral the podium was
covered in that pink monthia and my aunt gave it back to me and now I have it sitting in a shadow box
(45:08):
in my living room because that reminds me of her and that's you know something I have that was
but long to her there's really a lot of things you can do with with creating something meaningful
you know having tangible items I think is one of the most important things you can have
something to hold on to yeah yeah and and I was thinking too I was as you were telling your story I
(45:35):
was thinking of my own personal story where you know mom and dad you know accumulated a lot of
you know artifacts if you will and but there's a story behind those so it like for example
my mom's mom painted plates and so my mom's got him hanging in her you know living room
(46:01):
and we've often wondered where did those plates come from and why are they painted the way they are
oh that's because my mom you know she was expressing herself through her artistic talents and she
they were loggers up in Alaska so there would be long days up there and so she spent her days
(46:25):
painting and she painted plates and so they they've passed those on from generation to generation
that's awesome yeah speaking as similar to the idea of the story book here where I suggested if
you find them to to write out you know I remember the days when mom read these and whatever the
the plates if someone had when she was alive if someone had taken the time to ask her to write
(46:51):
something about that and to actually have that written letter on the back of a plate so that you
would have it and then you also have her handwriting and her signature and things you know that's
pretty cool how long does it take for the generations to forget you know I've often thought about that
you know I was Christine and I were talking about this the other day and how important it is to
(47:15):
capture our legacy and pass that on and then you know there was a side of me that was like well does
it really matter because in three generations you know I figured about three generations nobody's
going to remember who I am I mean just going past my great-grandchildren and then that's it yeah
(47:39):
that's accurate yeah is is that pretty accurate yeah yeah it is sadly um I actually am very fortunate
my great-grand uncle he has the family history secured through the 1500s so that's really
uncommon yeah there are some people that can actually trace back even further which I think is
(48:02):
incredible but on the other side of my family it actually stops at my grandparents yeah we don't
owe their parents we don't have the city or birthdays or that's 1500s back to in Mexico um actually
Spain oh Spain yeah because of the inquisition sure sure yeah that that and that's got to be fascinating
(48:26):
so have you got all that written down so the can pass that on to your children then they can pass
on to their children well I have some really cool stories I have a book and then I have that it's
I call it a scroll because it's rolled up but I have you know the family tree but there's actually
more to our story because of this situation and how my grandfather was born and not connected with
(48:48):
his birth family they're the beginning so it we have really interesting stories yeah yeah that
that sounds really cool so but that's what we're trying to do is encourage people to begin to
capture their story so that they can carry that legacy on into the generations beyond themselves
yeah it's uh I'm not gonna remember the name of the movie off the top of my head right now
(49:12):
of the Lion King um remember who you are yeah you know if you don't know who you are how can you
remember yeah yeah and and you know we went on a on a pilgrimage this last summer we went to
Scotland because that's that's our roots turmble is is Scottish and it goes all the way back
to I think it's the 11 hundreds in Scotland with King the the Bruce and he was out bull hunting one day
(49:42):
drew back his arrow shot and wounded a wild bull and the bull charged the king and the peasants in
his entourage one of the men William of rule stood between the bull and the king grabbed the
bull by the horns and turned the bull away from the king and saved his life and that's that's a true
(50:08):
story and the king said okay you're now turmble and we're gonna give you this land and you're going
to protect our flank from marauders and invaders on the coastline and and so we were the low in the
lowlands up to the highlands in and but see those are the kinds of things that need to be passed on
(50:31):
from generation to generation and otherwise if you lose that then you lose that sense of identity
and that's where I'm I'm I'm nourished by it I'm I'm feel empowered by it and you know I'm proud of
that heritage even though they were raping and pillaging and they were probably not the greatest
(50:52):
of all people and they were stubborn oh my goodness the turtles were
noted for their stubbornness and you know not fitting in and going against the grain and that's where
that's my wife reminds me now I know why you're the way you are because that's what you've inherited
(51:13):
throughout the ages it's when passed on yeah yeah but but those are those are interesting things those
those things I find very interesting yeah that that is really it is interesting and I think more than
that having having that to be able to pass down how many people first names do you know why you
(51:39):
were giving your first name no I don't that I know that mark is warlike which goes along with the
Turmbles tradition of war like stubborn yeah defiant yeah yeah my my name is Greek I am have no
(52:01):
Greek lineage but my mother was reading a novel and she liked the name it means life eternal and so
I hated my name growing up I absolutely hated it because if two years ago nobody else had the name
Zoe it was such an uncommon name and it constantly got mispronounced I don't know how many times I
(52:23):
was called zoe and I absolutely hate that I will correct people and so I was 13 years old I was in
the mall with my mom and there was a gentleman making jewelry out of gold he took like a straight
piece of gold and then he shaped it in the names and so my mom she got I was there with her she got me
(52:47):
my name and it it's the gold and it it's like a safety pin closure and it has my birthstone dangling
from it I still have that but I remember at that time I'm a student while I was almost 13 at that
time when she gave that to me she told me that my name was unique and that I was unique and then I
(53:08):
needed to be proud of that name and that that shifted my mind set completely to appreciating my name
now I love my name and it's more common but how many people don't know the story of their first name?
Yeah yeah or the meaning behind it even just knowing the meaning I think is important well it's
(53:28):
been a fascinating conversation is there anything else that you want to pass on when it comes to legacy
and if somebody does want to learn more about their legacy and they want to capture it
how do they get a hold of you so that you can help them to capture it?
Perfect thanks for asking I do want to mention that if you were to work with legacy
(53:52):
and you're looking to work directly with me I donate 10% of legacy sessions back to the bridge
breast network in DFW they provide breast cancer resources to underserved communities and I do
that on honor of my sister so that's a huge part of of me being able to honor her legacy so I know
(54:17):
she'd be really happy to know that that's how I was giving back to honor her with opportunities
for people everlastinglegacy.net the website will have blog information on how you can capture legacy
on your own different ideas and people that you can connect with everlasting legacy alliance is
(54:38):
a group that I'm going to be starting soon and that if you are engaged in the space whether you're
a financial advisor retirement planner wills and trusts attorneys people who are in interest in
ingeniology I want to create an alliance where we can all come together to help people preserve
their legacy and give them opportunities and education on how they can do that so these OEMarton
(55:03):
is where you can find me on social media and all that information will be in the show notes.
All right well we're a fascinating conversation that we've had today and I want to thank you
for being on aging today and let's I hope that this encourages others to begin to capture
their own legacies and to be able to somehow put them into a form that will carry on for generations.
(55:31):
Absolutely. Yeah all right well this is Mark Turnbull your host and I want to thank all of you
for tuning in to aging today we are the podcast where together works boring the many options to
aging on your terms join us every Monday when we release a new conversation on aging today to your
(55:52):
favorite podcast channel and remember this we're all in the process of aging and as we age we really
are better together so stay young at heart.
(56:18):
I want to go play hide and see I want to go and bounce the moon just like a toy balloon
well you and I I'll just like a bullet heart running across the metal
pick up lots of get me night so you made me feel so young you made me feel there are songs to be sung
(56:47):
there will still be wrong and wonderful thing to be fun anywhere I'm old and grey you've been
listening to aging today where together we explore the options to aging on your terms join Mark
in his guest next week for another lively discussion on proactively aging on your terms connecting you
(57:08):
to the professional advice of his special guests with the goal of creating better days throughout
the aging process your host has been Mark Turnbull join Mark in his guest every week on aging today your
podcast to exploring your options for aging on your terms and you when I'm grey you make me feel the way I feel today
(57:32):
because you make me feel so you make me feel so you make me feel so young so young you make me feel so young
It jogs my member with my dad, you know, growing up, I really resented that he was in the military.
(00:06):
He was gone a lot.
Uh-huh.
Man, that stunk.
I knew when I got married, I was not going to marry somebody who was in the military
because I wanted somebody to be with me.
And now I work back.
Well, the hard part about that is similar to what you're saying, not giving your dad credit.
I have letters.
I have so many letters that he wrote me personally.
(00:28):
Yeah.
Well, he was gone.
We wanted you with us, you know, but that was his job and his job took him away and it wasn't,
you know, by choice that he wasn't with us.
It was how he provided.
So, you know, I took that for granted.
And now the podcast we're together, we discuss proactive aging on your terms,
(00:56):
connecting to the professional advice of our special guests while creating better days
throughout the aging process.
Now here's your host, Mark Turnbull.
All right, hello, everyone, and welcome back to another lively discussion on aging today.
We are the podcast where together we're exploring the many options to aging on your terms.
(01:18):
You can find aging today and our eight years of past programs on our website.
All you got to do is type in aging today, dot us.
That's aging today, dot us.
And I want to say thank you every one of you that tune in every week to listen to our lively
discussions on the aging process.
And I know today you will find as many nuggets in this conversation as you have in all of our past
(01:46):
conversations.
So, as we always say, if you're not too busy being born, you're too busy aging.
And the neat thing about aging is as we age, we gain all this life experience, we gain all these
adventures. And you know, when we get towards the end of our lives, we want to preserve those
(02:09):
adventures for the next generation.
So that's what we're going to be talking about today.
And here to guide us down that path is an expert in that.
Her name is Zoe Martin.
She's the founder of Zoe Martin.
Is that what it is?
Zoe Martin of Zoe Martin.
And is that in my clothes?
(02:30):
In your clothes is the Zoe Martin.
The like the Ohio State University.
And it's the Zoe Martin.
Yes, just like that.
Perfect, perfect. And your photographer, a videographer, and a graphic designer, and you've
developed websites.
But more importantly, what we're going to be talking about today is your adventure into
(02:54):
building legacies.
And I'm very excited about that because part of the aging experience is to be able to capture all
those stories.
I remember as a kid growing up, I would sit down in the presence of my grandparents and my great
grandfather.
And they began to tell stories.
(03:16):
And it was there, they were amazing.
They were stories in logging camps.
They were stories, you know, fishing with dynamite.
I mean, all the things that you can't do today, they did it.
So I'm very excited about all of this.
So let's, let's begin.
So what, what we do, Zoe is we always want to know a little bit about yourself.
(03:38):
We want to know what's in your story, your personal story, what brought you to this place
where you began to capture legacy.
But before you started capturing legacy, tell us a little bit about your story.
Perfect.
Well, first of all, I want to thank you for allowing me to be here as a guest.
(04:00):
I appreciate that opportunity. It's actually my sister story that I'm going to be sharing because
that's how I, I ventured from what I was previously doing with my photo and video into creating
legacies for people.
So, verse, I also want to mention that I think it's super cool, the stories that you were able
to sit around and have with your family, that grandparents and great grandparents, those,
(04:24):
did you all capture those?
Like, is there any audio work?
No, I don't.
Some, we got some audio of my great-grandfather.
He was actually interviewed by the local TV station here up at camp 18.
It's literally a restaurant and nestled in the coast range.
(04:45):
And it's a legacy towards the logging industry.
So there's a lot of machinery outside the restaurant.
The tables are all made out of dug fur that have been cut around the area.
So it was, it's a great little setting.
It's still in existence.
You can, when you come to Oregon, you definitely got to take a peek at camp 18.
(05:07):
But that's where my grandfather, my great-grandfather, he grew up in the logging industry.
He was on trains.
He was burned badly and almost lost his life in a train wreck as they were moving logs
from the mountains down to the sea.
So those are, that's just one of many, many stories.
(05:30):
And some of those have been captured on back in the cassette tape days.
And we need to transfer those overs for sure.
Yes, definitely, because you want to be able to preserve those for future generations.
You know, I don't know, do you have children?
Yeah, yeah, I've got three boys.
(05:52):
Okay.
Christina's got three girls and we're blended family and we are the Brady bunch.
Yeah, everybody thinks that I'm sure.
As soon as you say three girls and three boys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or fantastic.
Well, I'm going to back up a little bit to telling you a little bit about me.
There's a big family.
(06:13):
I'm the oldest.
And with that, I have three little sisters.
And then brother is in heaven.
And then another brother is in Australia.
So we're all over the place.
When we were growing up, we, you know, had family photos, but not a lot.
(06:33):
And then, well, I'm not going to get the year right because we just transferred years here.
But on 2023, my sister Christina had battled breast cancer for five years.
And on Christmas eve of that year, I was, I was beside her with my head on her mattress when she passed away.
(06:54):
And that hit me very hard.
She was only 40 years old.
And so we had planned the four of us sisters were going to be together.
And I had hired a photographer to come in to, to be with my sisters and I so we could get
professional portraits before she passed away.
But at that point, she was in hospice care.
(07:15):
And she couldn't, she couldn't get up.
She was very weak.
She had oxygen.
She was sitting in the bed and she couldn't lie down or she would have drowned in her fluids.
She had no hair and she just, she looked so frail.
And I contacted the photographer and I said she doesn't want to be remembered like this.
(07:36):
And we canceled that.
So I'll never have the opportunity to have those photos.
She had one child and she wanted to record milestone videos of what, you know, would be
my niece would be able to have these milestone videos after my sister was gone.
And my sister at that time had someone who was recording podcasts and was going to be able to
(08:01):
record them.
Christina told me that she had recorded these podcasts.
And then after she passed away, we found out that either my sister Christina had chemo
brain and thought she did or the person who recorded them, I don't know what she did with them.
And so we'll never have the opportunity to have those.
The other thing that happened, I was just this culmination with my sister.
(08:25):
While she was in hospice, she was asleep, woke up and clearly just Zoe, go get the letters.
I thought, oh my goodness, we had gotten the breast cancer diagnosis of stage four when she was
35 years old. So five years, you know, we thought she was going to live forever.
(08:45):
Five years, we knew that this was coming and I'd forgotten about the letters.
So I picked them up. I came to her bedside.
I opened them up and then my heart broke.
She hadn't written any of them.
Our sister Cecilia had created stationary artwork, but none of them had been written.
And at this point, my sister couldn't hold her cup.
(09:08):
There was no way she was going to be able to write letters. So I grabbed my phone and I said,
here's what we're going to do, sweetheart, I'm going to record you.
So you say, whatever you want to say, we're going to worry about getting pen to paper later.
So I recorded two videos.
She fell asleep and the third video I recorded, we can hardly understand what she's saying.
Her voice is just so weak. And she didn't wake up to record again.
(09:31):
Yeah, that was really tough. After the celebration of life, I went to my niece and I said,
I got something for you.
And I gave her the letters and explained I didn't want to write in them.
I didn't feel like that was my place, but that I had recorded these videos.
So we started to watch the videos and the dog is at the foot of the bed.
As soon as Tiki heard Christina's voice, she whipped her head around.
(09:54):
And where is she?
And then my niece and I really broke down.
And that is the power of the voice, having those recordings,
you know, that audio so that you recognize those people through their voice.
I mean, handwriting is powerful too.
So that created the business pivot for me to now create like a cease-forever with people.
(10:15):
I'm not going to be able to get those back, but I can do something about future generations.
Yeah. Was there any other family photos when you guys were going up that you were able to acquire?
And then, you like a scrapbooker? I mean, do you take...
How does all that work today? In today's world because there's a lot of electronics.
(10:39):
And how do you dub tail all those?
Yeah. Well, what's crazy about that is because I do photo and video,
I wanted to create the slideshow presentation for my sister celebration of life.
And we accumulated almost 800 photos of her and all of the things that she'd done.
(11:00):
So we had, you know, a lot of physical prints, but a combination with digital.
And so I put together a slideshow. Yes, scrapbooking is something that I have done.
And currently you could do digital scrapbooking, but for me right now,
with legacy projects, you have the opportunity to create slideshows, photo albums. We could do stories.
(11:25):
There's this huge opportunity of things that we can do at Big Embralla.
Yeah, yeah. And we started doing a little bit of that. My dad passed away two years ago.
And that was kind of the impetus we took all of the slides. I mean, that was the generation when,
you know, dad was always taking pictures. Yes.
(11:45):
And everything was slides. Yes.
Hardly any prints. And so we then digitally recorded all of those going all the way back to the 1950s.
Wow. Wow. Did you have the sheet? Like you would put the sheet up on the wall and the family would come
and gather around for a family videos? Oh, no. You mean like a bed sheet?
(12:07):
Yeah, where you would put it on the wall and you would have family movie time?
Oh, no. We had a screen actually, dad had one of those portable screens. And then we, he had a,
a video, you know, a super eight or whatever, those were those cameras, movies. So we have
combination of movies and stills. And, but again, you have to preserve them. And because if you don't,
(12:29):
the, the film will deteriorate and then you lose all of the, the quality of that film as well.
Yes. We actually had that happen with our family. My husband and I have been married almost 30 years
in March. And, um, five or six years ago, I contacted a friend who she restored, um,
(12:49):
home movies. And we had taken the videos to someone else like those eight millimeter films.
And this company was well recognized. They were on the strip in Longview. And, uh, they said there
was nothing they could do that the film had actually stuck together. And they, they wouldn't be able to
separate it. So I took it to my friend and she was like, uh, actually we, we're going to be able to
(13:12):
save most of this. You're going to lose some, but not, not a lot. And sure enough, um, she dehydrated it.
And then right after the dehydration process started, um, to record. And so we have them now on a
flash drive and I have them backed up in computer. And so, yeah, I definitely highly encourage people
to back that stuff up. If you need recommendations, I'm more than happy to share who I know.
(13:35):
Yeah. That sounds good. That sounds good. So one of the things that I really enjoyed doing is
visiting cemeteries. I know that sounds really kind of morbid, but the thing that I love about
cemeteries is that there's a legacy that has been captured. It's captured in stone. And it's not as
(13:55):
detailed, but it's kind of fun to imagine. You know, that's what I do when I go in and I love the
epitats. And I, if I could say to anybody out there, you know, I know today is, we're kind of changing our
paradigm. How we're, we're leaving this world. We're doing a lot of cremation as opposed to burial.
And the thing I like about burial is that you get to carve your epitat in stone and it's there for
(14:22):
generations. When you do cremation, that's the one downside to cremation is, well, it's nice to know
that that they cast my ashes across the seas or in the high mountains or whatever romantic place
you have in mind. You know, so, but there's no way to capture that legacy. That's the downside.
(14:46):
Yeah, yeah. And I think it's important to having someone help you, you know, not just at the epitaph,
although that's wonderful. And I totally agree. Like, I love to read the dates to know how old they were
and get a visual of what that might have looked like, you know, their short life or their really
long life. But having someone help you with verbiage when you're creating is not a bio. At the end of life,
(15:13):
you've got that obituary written out. You don't have someone who's good with words, create that for you.
But what's really important is what you've done with your life so that they can create,
you know, and share what you've accomplished and what kind of a legacy you did leave behind.
Yeah, yeah, really, really important. And we went to Scotland this summer, this sidebar,
(15:38):
but we went to Scotland because that's our heritage. And so we wanted to learn more about the
Turnbull family. And so we ended up going to the little community that the Turnbulls were originated,
you know, goes all the way back to the King Bruce. And it's an interesting story. But when we were
(15:58):
visiting some of the cemeteries there, they approach it so much differently. It's really interesting.
Not many epitats on the stones themselves. It was usually just like the beginning date and the end date.
And that was it. And for most of now there was some that, you know, they had lengthy things, you know,
(16:21):
on there. And then some of the older ones weren't well kept, so it was hard to read, you know,
the epitats that were there. But I find that to be fascinating. Yeah, that is interesting.
Yeah. And so what we did for our folks for my mom and dad was we put a stone together
(16:42):
because they wanted to be buried. And, you know, we took all the symbols of what they accomplished
in life, what they did, like my dad was a school teacher. He was an architect and industrial design.
He was also a Christmas tree grower. My mom was a chamber of commerce and she ran, she was the
(17:05):
president of the chamber of commerce. And she also owned a bookstore. So we put all of those
symbols so that the epit, you know, people would know from generations later, you know, who these people
are. What did they do? You know, I thought that was kind of interesting to do. Yeah. I had you seen that
somewhere else, who came up with that idea? We just kind of, you know, my curiosity with
(17:31):
cemeteries. And so I think you got to tell the, I'm big on story. And our lives are nothing but a
story. That's all they are. There, there are story. And it's really interesting when you
approach life that way from the story perspective, it's just nothing but adventure after adventure.
(17:54):
And the more interesting your story is means that you took more adventures, you took more risks.
And that's why I always tell people, you know, don't be so conservative. Don't be so shy and
bashful. Just get out there and try new things. Yeah. It's an adventure.
Well, you know, you, I don't know, you can see this. I'm tearing up here. I'm just thinking
(18:17):
after my sister passed away, her and I didn't listen to the same genres of music, but I was like,
okay, I went to my niece and I said, I want to know like all her favorite songs. I want to of course
have those in the celebration of live video that we created. And one of the songs that's called
Unwritten. And that's basically what you're saying, you know, your, your life is a story. And,
(18:41):
and today is not written. So you are the opportunity to get that pen to paper. What are you,
what are you going to do with your life? What is your story? Write it. Yeah. Yeah. Take,
and take a risk. Step out on a limb. You know, the old adage is, you know, never be afraid to
to go out on the limb because that's where the fruit is. You know, if you, if you sit where it's safe,
(19:03):
you know, you get, you're going to have a pretty boring story. You're going to have a pretty boring
legacy. There's, well, what are, what are people going to talk to you? Have something really
interesting. You know, we went to my wife and I when we first met, there was a family reunion on
her side down in Sacramento. So we went down there and there her maiden name was Hange. And it's,
(19:27):
I think it's, it's Swiss Italian. And they had a story that was a newspaper that,
would, they had copied and printed out. They went to the archives and found this story about her
great grandparents and on the hangy side. And there was a murder. And it was like very fascinating
(19:52):
story. I'm not, and again, I'm not saying quite. They're in emergency, buddy, to, to, to build a great
legacy. But, but what a great story to be able to share from generations down the road where she
ended up the wife ended up, you know, killing her husband because he was abusive or something like
that. But, but again, it's flavorful. It's a story. It tells you a little bit about, hey, we have
(20:18):
the same problems today as they had two, three hundred years ago. So, you know, we just play them out
a little bit differently. Oh, that reminds me. I was just speaking to someone. She writes stories.
She's ghostwriter, her families and individuals. And she was, you know, explaining how she started
(20:40):
in another country. German, she was in New Zealand. And, and the histories that what she found out was
people who had known history had accomplished more for their lives because they were able to look
back on, on that genealogy and know the stories. And they just, it encouraged them to do more, to be more
(21:07):
and that people who didn't have their family story or didn't know their family history,
that they didn't accomplish as much in their own lives. Yeah. Yeah. That's powerful. Yeah, it really is.
It really is. So, I want to learn, learn a little bit about what some of the things you've learned as
you begin to capture stories from other people and primarily from yourself. You know, the
(21:30):
the Ampetus was, is it Christina or Christina? Christina. And, you know, that was, that was a, the
cattle prod that got you moving forward and creating a business and creating an opportunity to
help others capture their legacies as well. So, is, is there any legacies or any stories that have been
(21:56):
outstanding for you that really stick out in your mind as you get to know people?
The most interesting one so far has been the one I did recently. A friend of mine,
I was sharing my struggle with her with losing my sister. And in all honesty, she was
(22:17):
she's learning, she's taking a hoating course. And she's asking me questions. And because of her
prodding, I decided that I wanted this to be where my business was focused now, to just creating
legacy because before it was photo and video, but it was personal branding, beauty portrait headshots.
(22:37):
It didn't have as much value to me as what I'm doing now. Now, this is my purpose. And because of her
prodding, through sharing my story, she in turn shared hers with me. She had a sister who also had gotten
cancer diagnosis. She'd gone through chemo and radiation. So there was that struggle. She has,
(22:58):
I think, three sisters and then a niece, a daughter and her mother had four children. Her mother
is completely deaf. All of the kids were hearing. So that, I mean, that's a very interesting story.
The things that they could tell, how does a deaf mom raise children who are completely hearing?
(23:19):
I can imagine all the trouble those kids must have been. So we actually photographed all three
of those generations together. And she is sharing with me how each of these people are meaningful in
her life. And then she created adjectives for each of them. And at this, at the legacy session that
(23:41):
we did for them, she presented them and they didn't know this was going to happen. She presented them
each with a t-shirt and had the adjective across their chest. And it was a beautiful moment to see
their reactions and hear the reasons that she chose these, what she did. And then hers was grateful.
And it was, it was beautiful just to hear and see and watch that unfold in front of me and the
(24:05):
emotions that we captured. It was beautiful. I just, I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Comment a little bit about
why it's so important for us to capture stories or, and I guess, and legacy. You know, maybe we should
define legacy. What is a legacy? Why is it so important to have a legacy that carries on for generations
(24:29):
into the future? Wow. That's, that's a great question. And I feel, if for me, it's, it's a heart,
your story really is your legacy. It's how you've lived your life. Why did you make the choices
that you made? Who impacted those, those choices? And, and how did you then, in turn, impact other people?
(24:54):
And what, what are you leaving behind? And I think we take that for granted when making choices a
lot of times where we're, we're just worried about ourselves and we're worried about the, the moment
at, you know, credit cards, you know, immediate gratification. But if we, if we look into the future,
and what is going to be left, who's going to say, what about me after I'm gone? And I think the most
(25:19):
important thing about these, these legacy sessions is the opportunity for people to tell their
own story and to tell that in their own words. Because if you're not telling your story, somebody
else is going to tell it. And is it, is that the way that you want to be remembered? So, you know,
take that into consideration when you're making, you know, decisions that don't be so short term,
(25:40):
thinking the long, what's, what's going to be remembered about you when you're gone?
You know, what I find fascinating when we're sitting around the dinner table and we start
telling stories from the past. It's interesting how my brother, I'm got three brothers and a sister.
So there's five of us kids and it's really interesting how we all experience the same event.
(26:02):
But each of us has our own story about how that event unfolded.
Exactly. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, and to put all those stories together,
whether you do it, odd, do just an audio recording or I think video is my absolute favorite media
because that captures emotion. It captures tone. Have you ever read a text message or a written one
(26:27):
that was misconstrued? Because you didn't have the, the intonation, right? And so when you're like, "Oh,
hey, backup, you know, that's not what I meant or that's not how I meant for you to understand it."
So when you've got that audio or the video, you can capture the tone and the inflection and the
reactions. I love that. I think that's valuable. Yeah. I want you to, I'm going to, I'm going to read
(26:52):
a couple of things. I've been putting a lot of thought to story over the years and I just, I think
that it's really important that all of us begin to contemplate process, think about your own story
and think about the legacy that you want to leave to your children and to their, your grandchildren
(27:13):
and your great-grandchildren and on and on it goes. Because you never know. Sometimes you, you may think
that your story is lost or it's boring, but who knows? It could be made into a movie 400 years from now
or 200 years from now. You never know, right? I mean, we're, we're making movies of, of people that
(27:36):
have done extraordinary things that were forgotten and then all of a sudden their story somehow surfaced
and it was brought to the screen. So with that, if you really want to get to know somebody,
you need to know their story. And I think you got to take the time to really get to know your,
(27:58):
and ask questions from your grandparents, ask questions from your parents, you know,
and begin to write some of those things down. Is it, would that be a good starting place?
Absolutely. And I think, you know, we're a little older, I mean, you're older than I am, but
as you get older, you realize the importance of those moments and when you're younger, you're so
(28:24):
focused on yourself, right? Yeah, yeah. You don't think about these conversations that you're having with
your older generations, even your aunts and your uncles, your cousins for heaven's sakes, we all
have these, these things that we want to share, but people aren't asking us. And you don't want to just
start talking and you sound braggish. So when you have the opportunity to ask questions, you don't know,
(28:49):
Thanksgiving, Christmas just happened, right? We were around the family table with these people who
held meaning and value to us and chances are we didn't have deep meaningful conversations. So
what if you created a time, even it could be, you know, a video chat because you're not actually physically
together, but record it and capture those ask questions. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to be used to putting
(29:15):
out a blog ever lasting legacy media where we have some scripts, not necessarily scripts,
but questions, thought provoking questions that you can ask so you can do this yourself. I don't
want anybody to miss. Of course, what I do is a paid service and it's an opportunity where we're
going to deep dive and get needy gritty and provide a service with hair and makeup and video
(29:41):
production. But if you want to do this on your own and not have all those perks, you totally can
and you should. I think it's important, it's important for everybody. Did you know that it only takes
three generations to lose a piece of oral family history, according to Aaron Holt of the National
Archives and Records Administration? That means that the stories that define your family's triumphs,
(30:04):
struggles and values are at risk of being forgotten. Imagine the regret of losing those memories
forever or the joy of your children and grandchildren reliving the stories that shaped them.
Which will your family experience? This did you know segment was brought to you by this week's guest
and sponsored by Royal Hospice Oregon? Yeah, the second thing that I want to bring up to you
(30:28):
and I want you to comment on of why it is so important to you know to capture our story, our life
stories and continue to carry that legacy forward is that stories nourish us. What are some of the
thoughts that come through when you hear how stories can nourish us as individuals? Yeah and nourishment
(30:54):
is food, right? Yeah. It's we're ingesting nourishment. We're taking it in and we're feeding our
souls. You know, you've talked about some of your family history and sharing your wife's family
history and so taking that into account of what that's going to do for your future generations,
(31:16):
how are they going to look back on that? I have a great grandfather, the first Mexican American to
graduate Baylor Medical School and I have stories thanks to my great-grand uncle. He actually
wrote a family history and so we know when he first you know started in I think it was mission it may
have been MacKallon, south, south Texas that he didn't always accept cash for payment because people
(31:43):
didn't have it and so chickens or eggs or goats you know whatever they had that was payment. Who does that
today? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a that's a foreign concept. I mean people don't understand that but
that was how they how they survived that was how they traded and it wasn't with a dollar bill or
(32:05):
a coin it was with real live animals. And if you didn't know you know if someone hadn't recorded that
your your children, your grandchildren, I wouldn't have known so I think that's it's valuable. Yeah,
yeah, you know when I think of how stories nourish me I think about you know how would they strengthen
(32:26):
me because that's what nourishment does is it gives me strength and when we're going through a
dark period in our own lives there's many times when I've looked back to the past to gain the strength
from the stories of my parents or my grandparents you know I the the older I get and since my dad has
(32:49):
passed it's really interesting when he was alive I probably didn't give him the credit that he deserved
for the accomplishments that he made in life and oh my goodness I began to ponder those things
and I was going he had to work he had so little to work with but yet he accomplished so much in his
(33:12):
lifetime and he did it quietly he did it without fanfare and I I love that because that nourishes
me that strengthens me when I think about what he accomplished what my grandfather accomplished would
his parents accomplished and how that has made me into the person that I am today so I I'm
(33:37):
firm believer that capturing story capturing that legacy nourishes us as it strengthens us
yeah thanks for sharing that it it jogs my member with my dad you know growing up
I really resented that he was in the military because he was gone a lot uh-huh man at that stunk I
(33:57):
I knew when I got married I was not gonna marry somebody who was in the military because I wanted
somebody to be with me and now I work back well the hard part about that is similar to what you're
saying not giving your dad credit I have letters I have so many letters that he wrote me personally
yeah while he was gone we wanted you with us you know but that was his job and his job took him away
(34:21):
and that it wasn't you know by choice that he wasn't with us it was how he provided so you know
I took that for granted yeah but but the thing is that those are in your mind and these are the
things that strengthen us they nourish us even after they're gone and that's why there's some it's
so important to to capture that legacy to capture their stories and to be able to pass them on from
(34:47):
generation to generation you know one of the things that Zoe that I'm most concerned about is
you and I grew up in a time frame where family was at the center of everything and that's where
the stories were told around the dinner table with family and I've one of the the the mishaps of our
(35:08):
culture moving away from family you know today is that you know a lot of people listen
have they listen to us have this conversation they can't even relate because they don't have a family
they think about that I mean that's really kind of sad yeah and why we need to get back to building
(35:32):
families and the family structure why it's so important to be at the center of our lives you know
that reminds me when I lived I lived in the same city my sister lived four of the five years she had
cancer and in those four years we we were within 20 minutes at one point we lived five minutes apart
from each other and we didn't set a dedicated time to be together and that's a regret that I have
(35:58):
I know someone else that every Sunday their family got together and because they were close and so
I think that's one of the things even now we even though we're close we're not intentionally
purposefully saying every Sunday or every Friday night or whatever and that's one of the things
I'm super grateful for like you said my kids and I my husband we've got three children and they're
(36:22):
all adults now but every Friday or Saturday we made pizza from scratch the dough the sauce everything
and it was it's a it's a fantastic memory for us we had family time and we played games or we
watched a movie together it was our time to be together and you know we will always be able to
look back on that and I have some photos and things from that so one other thing that since you're
(36:48):
bringing the salt about families and family tables if you have a family and you've got young children
undoubtedly you've got a routine a bedtime routine a morning routine some kind of routine with them
capture that that is another huge regret I have we had a bedtime routine me and the kids would
jump in one of the beds together and we would read a story until my older so probably 15 years old
(37:14):
so the older they got the stories progressed but we read a story together and then there was a good night
like and I love you and there was a different I love you for each of my kids and that was in exchange
that we had and I don't have any audio or video no photos nothing to remember that other than my
(37:34):
memory so that's something I'm going to be writing down because that's I love that memory when you
were describing that I was thinking about myself as a as a young child and my mom was a voracious reader
and I'm not I'm not so certain I was a voracious reader but I loved sitting there as a young child
(37:56):
as she began to read you know books to us at night and those are fond memories and I can still picture
my siblings and we're all sitting around in our pajamas as she's reading the wind in the willows
I don't know if that's a story and the other one was the mouse in the motorcycle those those were
two stories that really had an impact on me growing up and they have fond memories the one thing that
(38:24):
that I've been looking throughout the house is those two books because she had them and I don't know
where they are and those are those are really important items if if that's a story that you read over
and over and over again to your children hang on to those books don't let them go because someday
(38:48):
when the children get older like myself may it may take 50 or 60 years down the road but they're
going to go though it's going to bring up those memories so you're going to want to keep those books
yeah 100% and I with my creative side I'm like okay so you you find these books and then you can write
(39:08):
that you know the memories and then you can include that in a note inside the cover so that as
that book gets passed down they'll have oh my word this is the book that you know great grandmother
used to read to grandpa and you knew yeah I mean you had there's so many opportunities to create that
legacy and we miss them yeah yeah yeah those those are really really important so
(39:32):
walk through if if I were to come to you and and say you know Zoe I've got all these stories
there some of them in my head some of them are in pictures and stills and some of them are in
videos you know super eights or whatever they are walk me through the process of how to begin to
(39:56):
organize that legacy that I want to pass on to the next generations that's fantastic you've got
a lot of stuff that we're going to pull together yeah so I need to know what it is how much it is
for instance some families aren't as blessed as our family where we have a ton I mean I have an
(40:18):
entire shoe box full of those eight millimeter tapes so that is hours upon hours of recordings right
so do you have a shoe box full do you have three shoe boxes full or do you just have two or three
so I need to know how much we're looking at same thing with photos you know we had almost 800 photos
of my sister by her 40th birthday but not every family does then again we also had the the physical
(40:45):
photos that needed to be scanned in and then we had the digital photos and then you've got the
quality of the images are we talking about I'm going to need to help you restore the photos or are
they a good enough quality that we can actually use them as is how many do we have do you have them
or are we gathering them from multiple sources because if we're gathering from different locations
(41:09):
and different people we've got to have a source location where we can accumulate all of this together
your written stories are are you the one that has those and have they already been written
or are you going to need to write those do you want to have an oral history do you want to have
(41:30):
these transcribed are we going to create a slideshow are we going to create the videos of you telling
this history are we going to do this to to an audio track with a voiceover are other people
going to be involved in the process do you also want to have a photo session where we you know end
(41:50):
this with you know this is our current family it's very involved and it's customized because there
are it's different for everybody we can go so far as to create a book at absolutely I encourage
wall art because that you remember when you grew up you had family photos hung on the wall that's
(42:11):
such a rareity now and so I actually do wall art customized and then I do the installation as well
I don't know if that answered your question but it's it's cumulative and it kind of it's
dependent on everyone's situation yeah and and you've created a business out of this as well so
(42:33):
that you can you know from all the experiences you've had you can walk people through the process
tell them the things that they need to do and when it comes to capturing a lot of the pictures
and putting them into a slideshow one of the things that I really enjoy doing is is finding out
(42:56):
some of the favorite music like we did that with my dad we took his favorite music and applied those
to the slideshow for his memorial service right and you know so talk a little bit about
a memorial service and what are some of the creative things that you've seen people do that you know
will honor and you know the the life of of that individual
(43:22):
mmm that's that's wonderful when you know like you were talking about the music and choosing the
music based on what your dad liked I think that's one of the things funeral parlors funeral
services get wrong is they just put in some kind of emotional elevator music you know
yeah yeah whereas that doesn't speak to who that person was it's it's just you know sadness
(43:48):
and I don't know that a lot of people are I guess that's something else you want to find out too
were these people cheerful happy exciting people or were they melancholy dramatic sorrowful people
finding out what genre of music they liked it can be really meaningful to you as well because
(44:12):
that will bring up memories when so and so used to listen to those specific songs you know when you
were in the car and they started singing along or they danced with you in the kitchen to that kind of
thing you know but for me one of the things that was really impactful at my grandmother's funeral
she's a Mexican we're 100% Mexican grandma wore a monthia which is a veil over her head
(44:40):
and I didn't know this until I was 40 maybe late 30s she always wanted a pink monthia
and so for her next birthday I gave her a pink monthia well at the funeral the podium was
covered in that pink monthia and my aunt gave it back to me and now I have it sitting in a shadow box
(45:08):
in my living room because that reminds me of her and that's you know something I have that was
but long to her there's really a lot of things you can do with with creating something meaningful
you know having tangible items I think is one of the most important things you can have
something to hold on to yeah yeah and and I was thinking too I was as you were telling your story I
(45:35):
was thinking of my own personal story where you know mom and dad you know accumulated a lot of
you know artifacts if you will and but there's a story behind those so it like for example
my mom's mom painted plates and so my mom's got him hanging in her you know living room
(46:01):
and we've often wondered where did those plates come from and why are they painted the way they are
oh that's because my mom you know she was expressing herself through her artistic talents and she
they were loggers up in Alaska so there would be long days up there and so she spent her days
(46:25):
painting and she painted plates and so they they've passed those on from generation to generation
that's awesome yeah speaking as similar to the idea of the story book here where I suggested if
you find them to to write out you know I remember the days when mom read these and whatever the
the plates if someone had when she was alive if someone had taken the time to ask her to write
(46:51):
something about that and to actually have that written letter on the back of a plate so that you
would have it and then you also have her handwriting and her signature and things you know that's
pretty cool how long does it take for the generations to forget you know I've often thought about that
you know I was Christine and I were talking about this the other day and how important it is to
(47:15):
capture our legacy and pass that on and then you know there was a side of me that was like well does
it really matter because in three generations you know I figured about three generations nobody's
going to remember who I am I mean just going past my great-grandchildren and then that's it yeah
(47:39):
that's accurate yeah is is that pretty accurate yeah yeah it is sadly um I actually am very fortunate
my great-grand uncle he has the family history secured through the 1500s so that's really
uncommon yeah there are some people that can actually trace back even further which I think is
(48:02):
incredible but on the other side of my family it actually stops at my grandparents yeah we don't
owe their parents we don't have the city or birthdays or that's 1500s back to in Mexico um actually
Spain oh Spain yeah because of the inquisition sure sure yeah that that and that's got to be fascinating
(48:26):
so have you got all that written down so the can pass that on to your children then they can pass
on to their children well I have some really cool stories I have a book and then I have that it's
I call it a scroll because it's rolled up but I have you know the family tree but there's actually
more to our story because of this situation and how my grandfather was born and not connected with
(48:48):
his birth family they're the beginning so it we have really interesting stories yeah yeah that
that sounds really cool so but that's what we're trying to do is encourage people to begin to
capture their story so that they can carry that legacy on into the generations beyond themselves
yeah it's uh I'm not gonna remember the name of the movie off the top of my head right now
(49:12):
of the Lion King um remember who you are yeah you know if you don't know who you are how can you
remember yeah yeah and and you know we went on a on a pilgrimage this last summer we went to
Scotland because that's that's our roots turmble is is Scottish and it goes all the way back
to I think it's the 11 hundreds in Scotland with King the the Bruce and he was out bull hunting one day
(49:42):
drew back his arrow shot and wounded a wild bull and the bull charged the king and the peasants in
his entourage one of the men William of rule stood between the bull and the king grabbed the
bull by the horns and turned the bull away from the king and saved his life and that's that's a true
(50:08):
story and the king said okay you're now turmble and we're gonna give you this land and you're going
to protect our flank from marauders and invaders on the coastline and and so we were the low in the
lowlands up to the highlands in and but see those are the kinds of things that need to be passed on
(50:31):
from generation to generation and otherwise if you lose that then you lose that sense of identity
and that's where I'm I'm I'm nourished by it I'm I'm feel empowered by it and you know I'm proud of
that heritage even though they were raping and pillaging and they were probably not the greatest
(50:52):
of all people and they were stubborn oh my goodness the turtles were
noted for their stubbornness and you know not fitting in and going against the grain and that's where
that's my wife reminds me now I know why you're the way you are because that's what you've inherited
(51:13):
throughout the ages it's when passed on yeah yeah but but those are those are interesting things those
those things I find very interesting yeah that that is really it is interesting and I think more than
that having having that to be able to pass down how many people first names do you know why you
(51:39):
were giving your first name no I don't that I know that mark is warlike which goes along with the
Turmbles tradition of war like stubborn yeah defiant yeah yeah my my name is Greek I am have no
(52:01):
Greek lineage but my mother was reading a novel and she liked the name it means life eternal and so
I hated my name growing up I absolutely hated it because if two years ago nobody else had the name
Zoe it was such an uncommon name and it constantly got mispronounced I don't know how many times I
(52:23):
was called zoe and I absolutely hate that I will correct people and so I was 13 years old I was in
the mall with my mom and there was a gentleman making jewelry out of gold he took like a straight
piece of gold and then he shaped it in the names and so my mom she got I was there with her she got me
(52:47):
my name and it it's the gold and it it's like a safety pin closure and it has my birthstone dangling
from it I still have that but I remember at that time I'm a student while I was almost 13 at that
time when she gave that to me she told me that my name was unique and that I was unique and then I
(53:08):
needed to be proud of that name and that that shifted my mind set completely to appreciating my name
now I love my name and it's more common but how many people don't know the story of their first name?
Yeah yeah or the meaning behind it even just knowing the meaning I think is important well it's
(53:28):
been a fascinating conversation is there anything else that you want to pass on when it comes to legacy
and if somebody does want to learn more about their legacy and they want to capture it
how do they get a hold of you so that you can help them to capture it?
Perfect thanks for asking I do want to mention that if you were to work with legacy
(53:52):
and you're looking to work directly with me I donate 10% of legacy sessions back to the bridge
breast network in DFW they provide breast cancer resources to underserved communities and I do
that on honor of my sister so that's a huge part of of me being able to honor her legacy so I know
(54:17):
she'd be really happy to know that that's how I was giving back to honor her with opportunities
for people everlastinglegacy.net the website will have blog information on how you can capture legacy
on your own different ideas and people that you can connect with everlasting legacy alliance is
(54:38):
a group that I'm going to be starting soon and that if you are engaged in the space whether you're
a financial advisor retirement planner wills and trusts attorneys people who are in interest in
ingeniology I want to create an alliance where we can all come together to help people preserve
their legacy and give them opportunities and education on how they can do that so these OEMarton
(55:03):
is where you can find me on social media and all that information will be in the show notes.
All right well we're a fascinating conversation that we've had today and I want to thank you
for being on aging today and let's I hope that this encourages others to begin to capture
their own legacies and to be able to somehow put them into a form that will carry on for generations.
(55:31):
Absolutely. Yeah all right well this is Mark Turnbull your host and I want to thank all of you
for tuning in to aging today we are the podcast where together works boring the many options to
aging on your terms join us every Monday when we release a new conversation on aging today to your
(55:52):
favorite podcast channel and remember this we're all in the process of aging and as we age we really
are better together so stay young at heart.
(56:18):
I want to go play hide and see I want to go and bounce the moon just like a toy balloon
well you and I I'll just like a bullet heart running across the metal
pick up lots of get me night so you made me feel so young you made me feel there are songs to be sung
(56:47):
there will still be wrong and wonderful thing to be fun anywhere I'm old and grey you've been
listening to aging today where together we explore the options to aging on your terms join Mark
in his guest next week for another lively discussion on proactively aging on your terms connecting you
(57:08):
to the professional advice of his special guests with the goal of creating better days throughout
the aging process your host has been Mark Turnbull join Mark in his guest every week on aging today your
podcast to exploring your options for aging on your terms and you when I'm grey you make me feel the way I feel today
(57:32):
because you make me feel so you make me feel so you make me feel so young so young you make me feel so young
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