How would
you like to be remembered?
Legacies aren’t just about what you leave behind, they’re also about the impact you have on the people around you, and what you create as you live your life.
Music played a starring role in Lex Greaves’ family, and it’s a legacy he’s continuing.
“Watching him on stage made me want to learn to play and sing,” says Lex Greaves, remembering his dad Taylor “Rusty” Greaves, one of New Zealand’s country music legends. Rusty had an enduring influence on the local music scene and a legacy that has been continued by his children and grandchildren. “We just all wanted to sing and play an instrument and try and be as good as him. That’s the way we looked at him.” With natural talent and a creative house, the siblings soaked up music, and learned what they could from Rusty. Today, Lex and his sister play together in cover band Midnite Special — he plays bass and does vocals, while his sister sings as well — and Lex’s children share the family love for music too. “I get them up to sing at my gigs,” says Lex. “So, it’s definitely passed down the line, the musical ability.”
"I hope they carry on my Dad’s legacy, my legacy and they pass it down to their kids. That’s the way I see it and what I’d like to see happen.” — Lex Greaves
Though music was a big part of Lex’s childhood, family was everything to his dad, Rusty. “To us, he was just Dad; we just idolised him, and he was a wonderful father,” says Lex. “He always taught us to respect your elders, especially Mum.” One of Rusty’s famous songs ‘Anna’ was written for her. “It was about Mum, how they go through the years bringing up their children,” Lex reveals, and now he gets requests to sing that song at his own gigs — a way to honour both his parents' legacies.
It’s important to him to keep his father’s musical passion alive, but he’s also mindful that there was so much more to his father too, and all of that is worth emulating. “He was very kind, he’d give the shirt off his back to help someone else out. It’s just the way he was and we’ve followed." Those are the values that Lex endeavours to live up to, and he hopes it's a legacy that continues with his own children.
Protecting yourself with a will might be the most important thing you do for you and your loved ones, and for nearly 150 years Te Tari Tiaki Iwi Public Trust has helped empower New Zealanders to plan for the future.
" We have a proud history of standing up for what we believe is fair and championing all New Zealanders; it’s something we’ve been doing for generations." — Glenys Talivai, Public Trust CEO
Toni Street, Sam Wallace and Jason Reeves have all inherited objects
of significance.
There’s a poem hanging on the wall at Sam Wallace’s house — The Man in the Glass by Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr — that is much more than just a decorative object. “It was a poem my grandfather Len loved and lived his life by,” says Sam. “He thought the poem had poignancy for me, so in his nineties, he wrote the poem out on some beautiful paper and framed it.” Sam turns to the poem and, in a way, his grandfather too, when he needs clarity. “I often read it and it always puts things into perspective for me.”
“I'm already passing it on, the poem lives in our house and I read it to my son Brando a lot.” — Sam Wallace
A legacy item may be deceptively humble, but it can hold deep significance for its custodian. Jason Reeves has a collection of metal pencil sharpeners, shaped like all sorts of different objects, that his grandmother collected during her life. As he’s gotten older, the collection has become increasingly important to him. “I think it's a representation of something that meant a lot to Nana,” Jason says. “It reminds me how thoughtful and loving my Nana was and that's something I'll always cherish.”
“I’ll pass these on to my two sons Max and Olly. They want to know about our [grandparents] so for them to have something that once belonged to my Nana would be pretty cool.” — Jason Reeves
Toni Street’s daughter is already a custodian of one of their family's most special items — a Belarussian costume that was given to her by Toni’s mother-in-law, who had received it from her own grandmother at the age of five. “The costume was a precious gift from a grandmother to her granddaughter that she never got to meet, and now my daughter gets to bring new life to the dress,” says Toni. “It’s a great way to learn more and have conversations about her heritage.”
“The costume was a precious gift from a grandmother to her granddaughter that she never got to meet, and now my daughter gets to bring new life to the dress.” — Toni Street
Legacies are the things we teach our children, the passions we pursue, and the care we take for the planet. But over half of Kiwis don’t have a will.
"We empower all New Zealanders to
build and protect their legacies."
— Glenys Talivai, Public Trust CEO
For Kristy Renee, restoring her 1969 Ford Mustang is more than just DIY.
“Growing up my whole life, all I wanted to do was get this 1969 Mustang and do it up myself.” It’s a deeply personal goal, but she’s also driven to honour a family legacy; her father Kendall Payne was big on cars, and helped her pick out this one. He restored cars for most of his life and was a Chevrolet man himself. Tragically however, Kristy’s dad didn’t get to be part of the restoration, or see it finished. “He didn’t get to work on it with me, he was quite sick when I got it.” Kendall was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in November 2019 (the same month she bought her Mustang) and passed away the following August. “He tried to give me as much advice, especially in that last year, as he could.”
She’s determined to finish restoring her Mustang, for her father and for herself (she's planning a memorial car cruise to honour his legacy and raise money for Motor Neurone Disease) and the project has been a massive rollercoaster, with many ‘What the hell am I doing?’ moments. “There are days where it’s really positive like, ‘Yeah, I can do this, I can learn it, I can get it done!’ and then days where I think ‘I’m never going to do this.' ”
“This is my absolute dream and something I plan to keep and then pass it on to my daughter one day.” — Kristy Renee
His positivity through his life and illness left an enduring legacy. “That was a big thing that got us through what was going on. He was so positive every single day,” she says. “I’ve picked up on that quite a lot, that ‘it is what it is’ saying, you have to live by that in a way.”
Like him, she is going to make her car part of her will — leaving it to her daughter. She also hopes to pass on Kendall’s pragmatic attitude. “In life, you’ve just got to grin and bear it a little bit, and carry on and stay positive. Have confidence. Who cares what other people think about what you’re doing, or their attitude to what it is? If that’s what you want to do, go for it. You really can’t plan anything; no matter what, it’s going to change at some point," she says. "It is what it is.”
These New Zealanders are thinking about their future, but Public Trust’s expertise has a long history — it's been helping Kiwis shape their legacies since 1873.
“Public Trust was established in 1873 as the world’s first public trustee services organisation,” explains Glenys Talivai, Chief Executive Officer of Public Trust. “We were set up at a time when some of the most vulnerable in New Zealand’s community needed the protection of our services.” Its progressive, supportive outlook saw it employing women long before it was the norm, helping Māori settle land disputes and ensuring financial security for the families of soldiers who lost their lives in World War Two.
“While we have adapted and grown over nearly 150 years, at our heart we are still here to carry out the same essential services for all New Zealanders that we were set up to provide in 1873.”
- Glenys Talivai, Public Trust CEO
“Showing care for others helps build trust, as it’s this trust that
New Zealanders place in us that has ensured we have, and will continue to have, a place in our community,” explains Glenys, and Public Trust is drawing from the past to look to the future. “We have an ambition to be here for many years to come, making sure all Kiwis have access to our important products and services to be able to build and protect their own legacies.”
Under Glenys’ watch, Public Trust launched a new purpose this year. “We empower all New Zealanders to build and protect their legacies.” To do so, it’s focusing on accessible and interactive digital solutions, customer care and streamlining systems — all with the goal of getting more Kiwis thinking about the future, and the legacy they will leave behind.
Glenys Talivai, Chief Executive Officer of Public Trust
Glenys Talivai, Chief Executive Officer of Public Trust
Public Trust is thinking about its past and looking forward — are you?
Write your will online at Publictrust.co.nz
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