What I Want People to Remember About Me

I promised on Tuesday that I would answer the questions from WRITE FOR THE FIGHT in my blog post this weekend.... But as I've considered my answers this week, I realized that I've already written about things that I remember from when I was young. And I've already shared my hopes and goals for my life now, moving forward. So I decided to focus on the final question: What do I want people to say about me on my 80th birthday?

If I'm still alive and kicking on my 80th birthday, I hope my friends and family will gather together for a great big party. I want people to laugh and smile as they tell one embarrassing story after another....

* The time I was wading across the "lake" at Relief Society camp, and I lifted my left foot to take a step before my right foot was actually on the bottom... and I ended up totally submerged in the water.

* The many, many times I fell flat on my face when trying to balance on a couple of pool noodles during a deep water jogging class at the Y.

* The way I misheard and misunderstood song lyrics on a regular basis (I was sure that The Christmas Song included the line "later on, we'll perspire as we dream by the fire").

* The time I panicked because I saw a snake on the sidewalk leading up to my front door... and when I ran down the street to get my friend Julie to save me, she discovered that my giant snake was actually just a harmless, little lizard.

I've provided countless hours of entertainment for friends, family and even total strangers. I hope that I continue to do so, and when I am old, I want people to think about the way I've brought smiles and laughter into their lives.

Also, I hope that people will say I was kind and loyal and true. I hope they'll say I was someone who had the courage to stand up for her convictions. I hope I'll be remembered as someone who could love and accept people as they are, while simultaneously encouraging those around me to become better versions of themselves. I hope I'll always be someone that people see as a true friend.

And when I die (whether I make it to my 80th birthday or not), I hope that my friends and family are so full of silly memories that they keep forgetting to cry. I hope, instead of flowers, my friends will adorn my casket with bouquets of old pool noodles and recycled plastic bags,

and instead of a somber memorial service, they'll sit around trying to come up with the most embarrassing Veronica stories, while tears of sorrow morph into the kind of tears that always accompany side-splitting laughter.

What about you? How do you want people to speak of you, on your 80th birthday? What do you want people to remember when you're gone?