Sunday, July 5, 2020

My husband's story

I think my husband might start his story today. Both of our daughters have mentioned to him how exciting that would be to have him write his story. He can sit and talk while I type (I am still a fast typist; I learned to type when I was 12 and it was a skill I took to very rapidly and well). Perhaps I am not quite as accurate as I once was though as I do find errors in my blog that I correct on the next reading.

My husband was born near the Village of Princeton, Ontario, Canada on a farm that was actually in Burford Township but right across the then Number 2 Highway from the Village of Princeton. His father died from a farming accident when my husband was two years old and his wife and older son and Edward moved into the village of Princeton where he lived until he came to University in London, Ontario when he was nineteen years of age. He studied Honours Chemistry and then did his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry (papers still cite his original research), he then went on to do a Postgraduate Fellowship (2 years) in Chemical Engineering and following that he did his Masters in Library Science. I entered in during the undergraduate Chemistry degree (I was one year behind him).

He has told me so many stories of his youth at different times and I can recall them but it would be good to have him say it all again in his own words. It is so very difficult to be inactive when you have been so very active all of your life. Memories flood back into my mind of my grandfather whose very active life terminated quite quickly after a stroke and the same with my father. My grandfather was almost 80 years of age when he passed and my father was nearly 95 years of age. In that same male line my great grandfather was 71 years of age when he suffered a stroke and died in 1916. But remembering the last years of the lives of my grandfather and father I can understand how frustrating limited activity can be to very active people.

Edward will be 78 on his next birthday.

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