A legacy isn't a résumé. It's what people carry forward.

Ask one question, not ten

The mistake is sending people a questionnaire. Ask everyone the same single question and you get a legacy with a spine — the same person seen from six angles. Pick one of these and use it for all of them:

• "What do you do differently because of them?"
• "What's the moment you'd want their grandchildren to know about?"
• "What did they say to you that you've never forgotten?"
• "When did they do something for you that nobody asked them to do?"
• "What would they have refused to do, even if it cost them?"

Moments worth capturing

• A decision they made that cost them something.
• A standard they held when nobody was checking.
• The thing they always said, in their exact words.
• A time they gave someone a chance no one else would have given.
• What they were like when the work was going badly.
• A small daily habit that turned out to be the whole philosophy.

Who to ask

A legacy isn't only a family matter. Start with what you carry from the relationship — that alone makes a complete record. If you want it wider, go to the people whose direction actually changed: a mentee, a former student, a colleague, someone from the community they served. Keep it to a handful. Six specific moments read better than thirty polite ones.

Don't try to write the biography

You're not producing a book, and you don't have to be a writer. You gather real moments — words, a photograph, a short recording — and Preserve shapes them into one thing someone can open, read, and hear. The result isn't a biography. It's what someone stood for, told by the people who lived it with them, and it's the kind of record that gets passed down.

The easiest way to begin

Answer your own question first, before you invite anyone. One moment, four lines. Everything else is easier once the first honest answer is in.