Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Cleaning day and a different look

 Cleaning day again and we accomplished both floors once again. I also read through the notes that my husband wrote so many years ago when he did a postdoc in Chemical Engineering. It was new then this idea of taking sulfur dioxide out of the environment and he was excited to be in the project but gradually he found that his interest lay in just having a more permanent job than a postdoc and so the idea of going to Library School was born and he took it on, completed it and went to work at the National Research Council here in Ottawa. Books were always important to him and the opportunity to assist other researchers since a job for him in research appeared to be an unlikely happening; his new job appealed to him very much. But perhaps due to my lingering illness he felt the need to be permanently employed as I regained my strength and could return to the work force once again. It would be a little while although I must admit I liked to work and so I did find some proofreading and copyediting to do at home. Although it didn't pay very much it was a skill to cultivate whilst my little one grew up under our watchful eyes. It seems a long time ago now; we lived our entire life from that day onwards where we are now. The traveling though that we undertook through the years was enormous as I glance back occasionally looking for one item or another thinking about his work on his various family lines. My mind will soon be free to pursue more of his thoughts and publish them on his blog. I await that time in anticipation of being able to do so. 

A few projects as I need to contact his cousins to give them the family pictures that he acquired. I met some of them in the last few years before COVID when Edward directed all of his energy towards contacting them (likely so that I would know who they were as I think about that now). The pictures should not be lost now that he has located relatives who shared his interest. 

Today I finish the cleaning and work my way through a dozen bags of paper and information. I think there is one bag for each of our European trips and a couple of our larger American trips. Edward kept every piece of paper that he was given or picked up at various places we visited. He used to go through those bags I remember enjoying once again all the things that he saw when we traveled. He had an enormous thirst for travel once he made that first cross ocean plane trip. He had dreams of taking a boat trip back from Europe but COVID eliminated that idea. As always, I was just along for the ride although I did enjoy seeing everything as well. But I would never have done all of that traveling on my own. It just doesn't really interest me. But it was fun doing it together.

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