We have two rooms full of boxes - one set to stay and one set to be donated to the OGS Ottawa Branch (and the Friends of the Archives with a few boxes going to Salvation Army). They are now more or less organized with one leaving one of these days when the process can begin and the other will move into its eventual destination once the bookcases and other books have completed their donation process. I decided to pack everything because I do not use my material very often and not at all at the moment. Everything that I work at is online. That way I can organize it when I unpack it in the future (perhaps in six months). My boxes include a lot of other items like puzzles, games etc as well as books.
Life feels somewhat more organized but there are always these little hiccups that occur along the path. But gradually they resolve themselves and I continue along this path that at times seems endless as I try to refind myself. I do not want anything interfering with my projects and time with my family. Edward and I were always so busy I did not have enough time with my family. Mind you that life with Edward was pretty exciting; we were out and about all over the place until Edward's illness overtook him in 2020 but a lot of that was the confinement of COVID-19. It was sad for him not to be able to just go and visit this repository or this site or at least go shopping. He loved to go out the door on his many expeditions.
We were writing his story starting in the late Fall when he finally agreed that it would be interesting. I always knew that his life had been pretty limited when he was young and so I listened and typed as he talked. I knew from the way he dove into life that he had not done very many things in his life. He spent a lot of time as a child with his grandmother Kipp while his mother worked and he enjoyed being with her. He was her youngest grandchild (she had four sons and seven grandsons) and the hardest thing he did in his young life when he was just 16 was to be a pall bearer for his beloved grandmother. I often think back on his conversations during those last few months when he dictated his life story. I had always understood his need for projects and his hobbies are an enormous list. But when we started to organize his things I discovered that he had kept every membership club card that he had ever had and they began when he went to University. Princeton was a very small town (barely 400 people when he was growing up) and there just wasn't very much to do there unless you were into organized sports which he just never was. He liked to play tennis and that was pretty much his sports involvement. We used to play tennis but he really preferred just to walk and talk about what we were seeing. Every road every tree had something new and interesting to look at for him and it was fun being in his world actually. I just never met anyone who was so totally immersed in learning so much about the world around us. He was thinking of doing geology when he first went to Western but Chemistry drew him in. I think that he would have also enjoyed geology as a PhD study; his interest and love of nature was quite extensive.
I am taking a short break from newsletters as my eyes rest from all the transcription. I tend to get right into that and work work work until I have completed the task which can be a bit of a strain on the eyes!
I know that I will think about Edward to the end of my days and the life we enjoyed together. I want to concentrate all those stories in my mind so that when my grandchildren ask me about their grandfather I will have lots of stories to tell them about him.
No comments:
Post a Comment