How this came to be
I didn’t set out to write a book. I didn’t even set out to solve a problem. Simply put, coping is how this came to be.
Losing my grandmother was rough. There were so many more conversations I wanted to have, so many questions I never got to ask. Knowing I lost her believing we still had more time. That hurt the deepest.
I couldn’t sleep. I was crying uncontrollably. Then somehow it came to me: start writing down the questions I’d always wanted to ask her. As I wrote, I started imagining her answers. And her answers took me from crying uncontrollably to laughing uncontrollably.
I kept writing. Kept imagining. And eventually I looked up and noticed the mess I’d made, papers everywhere, every kind of question I could think of. That’s when it hit me: if I organized this, maybe I could help a few other people avoid the same pain.
That’s when I began my mission: to build a place where every family can preserve their legacy, in their own time, at their leisure.
If even one family is brought closer because of these pages, one grandchild who finally hears their grandparent’s voice, one parent who understands their child a little better, then this book has done its job.
Thank you for being part of that.
Donnie McGuire
From “How This Book Came To Be,” Leisure Legacy, 2026 First Edition.
The mission
“Leisure Legacy was created to make this process simple and human… This is not about perfection or completion. It’s about presence.”
From the journal’s Introduction.
The journal helps you uncover the story. The Legacy Page gives it somewhere to keep growing. Together they become the beginning of a family library: real words, real voices, passed down.