The news stories about legacies are so often about big, splashy gifts: a new art museum; a new hospital; a new wing of a university. You know what I’m talking about — something large and granite with an engraved name of some well-know dynasty, designed to make you feel small and insignificant. It is so easy to read about these gifts and feel like legacies are only for the uber-wealthy.
But all of us will die someday and leave everything behind. Like it or not, we all leave legacies, either intentional or not. What I’m interested in writing about here are small, quiet legacies — the gifts people have left behind that nourish us all and foster joy.
Warner Park and Garden, in Chicago, is a place like that. A schoolteacher named Lois Buenger mortgaged her home in 1987 to buy a 1.4 acre lot in the North Center neighborhood, and created Chicago’s first private park. In so doing, she beat out a developer’s bid to develop the lot, a project that would have endangered a 100 year-old ginko tree and rallied the entire neighborhood to protect the lot and create a community green space.
Over the years she and her neighbors turned the once untended lot into a gracious garden enjoyed by everyone who lived nearby. In 2001, the City of Chicago and a local non-profit urban land trust, Neighbor’s Space, worked together to purchase the land and the park became officially public. In 2003, Lois died. Now the park is maintained by a board of directors made up of local residents and friends of the park. It is open everyday from dawn to 11 pm.
If you know of a small act of generosity that led to joy and community, or one that deeply touched you personally, please shere your story in the comments below. I’d love this newsletter to share these stories, so we can all inspire each other.