Julie Helen: Dolly's death made me think about the legacy we leave behind 

As the news of Dolly Parton’s death filtered through, I immediately felt sad.

The video shared across the world of her nephew and head of security announcing the news told me that Dolly and her family members were not shocked that she was at the end of her life. I guess, at the age of 80, you have some idea that the road is running out.

Far more important than the road running out is the legacy we leave behind. Dolly Parton leaves countless country music hits with us as she rode off into the sunset.

In 2008, I had the joy of getting to see her at Live at the Marquee. I was invited to go with a group. I didn’t know everybody very well, and I wouldn’t have called myself a Dolly Parton fan then. It was probably the live act that has surprised me most in my life. Dolly was electric. She was hilariously funny, and her talent and charisma just beamed from her.

It was absolutely lashing rain the same night, and those were the days when the tent could spring a leak, so Dolly ducked and dodged the rain and made it a fun element of her performance rather than a nuisance. She spoke candidly about her plastic surgery and explained how she would always get something “nipped, tucked or sucked” if she felt she needed it. That concert had a lasting impact on me; the music and melodies were exceptional live. It reminded me that such an important part of who we are as humans is relishing shared experiences. I’m so glad I was there that night.

Beyond her music, Dolly Parton also left a legacy of supporting children from all over the world to have access to books from a very young age.

I am a voluntary director of Let’s Grow Together, which is an infant and child partnership in Knocknaheeny and surrounding areas.

It is a community-based service that works alongside families and key people in children’s lives to support their earliest development and wellbeing. Let’s Grow Together is the administrator, along with an important community working group, of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Cork. It means children within the catchment area receive one book per month from birth to being five years old.

The books are beautiful and it gives children a great start in loving books and stories and shows them how fun reading can be.

Dolly set up the Imagination Library in a partnership with Penguin Random House, and the books are subsidised at €1.33 per book, making them widely available to children who need them. In Cork, An Post sponsors the packaging and postage of all of the books each month.

More than 82,000 books have been delivered to over 3,300 children aged 0-5 living in the Cork catchment areas since we launched the Imagination Library in Cork in 2020.

There are currently 1,549 children actively registered with the Imagination Library Cork, and they get a book every month until they graduate from the programme. There is no cost to the families, and children receive books once they are in the catchment areas for Let’s Grow Together and register. It is possible to register for just Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and not other classes or programmes offered by Let’s Grow Together, but they have great supports. The small cost of each book is fundraised for, and we can donate at https://donate.imaginationlibrary.com/