Five years after Ken Morganstern was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, he sat down with his daughters Priya Morganstern and Bhavani Jaroff to talk about some of the memories he had left.
At 81, he couldn't see and he needed some prompting from time to time, but family stayed strong in his memory.
He remembered that his dad was an easygoing guy, nicknamed "Happy Harry." "I had a lot of his characteristics, I think," he said.
Priya asked him if he wished he had gotten anything in life that he didn't get. "I have no regrets on anything," he responded. "I have a family that I love. And they're loving people. That's the biggest thing you can leave is a ..."
"Legacy," Bhavani said.
"Legacy, yeah."
The interview was first broadcast in 2006, and Ken died a year later. His daughters recently came back to a StoryCorps booth to talk about his legacy.
"I remember one time we stopped for a bagel and he's taking a bite and he goes, 'Who would have ever thought eating blind could be so much fun. Every bite's a surprise!' " Bhavani, now 56, says.
His daughters say they listen to the original interview often.
"I think my father had the opportunity to say what was important in his life," Bhavani says. "And it really came down to love."
Audio produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo with Yasmina Guerda.
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