Some legacies are just recipes. Ask for the measurements while you still can.

Much of what families pass down is practical and undocumented, living entirely in one person’s hands. Recipes, repairs, the right way to do a particular thing: none of it is written anywhere, and all of it is one conversation away from being lost. There is no ceremony attached to asking. The window is often narrower than it looks and nobody announces when it is open.

Pick one person and one thing they can do, and ask them to teach you properly rather than describe it. Write down the measurements, including the vague parts. Doing it beside them beats any recording.