Replying to the condolence cards

 It is three to four months since I received all of the Condolence Cards sending sympathy to myself and our family when Edward died. It has also taken me most of that time to come to terms with his dying although I knew that he was very unwell. I thought that I could be strong enough for both of us but in that regard I failed as I could not halt the forward pace of his disease. 

In the last couple of months of his life Edward had many thoughts on how to manage all of his hobbies and interests and given my tendency to write everything down I did do that and we have followed his ideas to this point in time where there are no longer any desires or requests to fulfill other than actually getting material to some of his relatives which has not yet been accomplished. 

His study room is pretty much as he had it minus the ten bookcases eight of which were enormous reaching from floor to ceiling and everyone of them full of books and other material. The closet with its 36 banker boxes has just 12 boxes now. We combined the parts of his study room that we retained along with the library portion of our bedroom bringing together all of his interests in one room. His urn still sits on the Refectory Table with his plants around it. My daughter has managed to keep his orchids blooming most of the time since he passed away and the blooms have been quite beautiful. His Christmas Cactus have bloomed at Easter which always tended to amaze him and at the moment are gathering up strength for the new blooming. 

I have still not started work on his research boxes but as the Fall comes I will have more time to do that. I am very happy to have thought about using his blog to publish the contents of his research boxes. It will be the easiest way for me to accomplish the idea of passing his material on to other researchers. 

I am just now writing a letter to put into the two different sets of cards that we found in Edward's desk and seemed most fitting to thank people for their kind words and cards. One set has a family tree on the front and the second set is pictures of Loyalist Ontario. A great deal of his spare time and then all of his retirement time was spent either on Genealogy or the United Empire Loyalist Society. I do apologize for the typed reply but will hand write as well if I feel that the reply does not respond to the card received. The words I have chosen:

Thank you so very much for your kind words of condolence following the death of my husband Edward Kipp. Your card was very much appreciated by both myself and our family.

Edward was the centre of our lives. His many ideas dragged us out of our working tendency to view another interesting astronomical happening through his telescope in the back yard or to tell us about another exciting family discovery as he researched his family tree and to hear about lots of interesting ideas on places to visit and things to do. We miss him very much and appreciate your taking the time to send us your condolences.