A legacy is something that is a part of your history or which stays from an earlier time.  A legacy stays for future generations. 

The gift of legacy is far more about how the next generation benefits from the rich life you have lived in this generation. 

That twinkle from your dad, long since paled with the passage of time, told you everything was going to be okay.  His legacy to you and your family is to capture that comforting twinkle as he tells the stories that warmed your heart as a child and keeps those stories current today.

Your mother's legacy to you covers years of your history.  Now as a widow, she has a legacy to give you as she tells about her courtship with your dad, how their years of marriage were, what she valued about your family, what raising you was like. 

Even your favorite boss, soon to retire, has a legacy…about the company, its growth, its changes.   A gold watch seems too clichéd. A trip doesn’t have the intimacy you want. You want something more permanent and meaningful because of what this boss meant to you. Get your colleagues together and do one of two things or both: all of you tell individually what it was like to work for that boss with hysterical war stories, victories you shared, and those covered over mistakes or let him tell his story for all to hear.

With such a gift of legacy, this history stays current.
In their own voice.
With their own expressions.
With a life chronicled.
It's about legacy