Advent Sunday

We bought a large brass ring with four candle fixtures to put candles in for our Advent Candle (it was sold as an Advent Candle holder) back in 1976 when our oldest child was quite young. We had gone to Church and the Advent Candle was lit and she wanted to do that at home and so through the years when our children were young and into their teen years we held our own Advent Candle Service throughout Advent Sunday afternoon including several hymns. We had a Jesse Tree as well for which we had made cloth symbols which we put on during our Advent Sunday service and every day during the weeks before Christmas. We were still going to Church as a family in the morning as well but our own little service had great meaning for us. 

I watched Advent Sunday I on the You-Tube although not at the actual time as we were heading back from the cottage as my daughter was going to do half of an ER rotation which had not been picked up by anyone so had to be back early. I am so very happy that Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa (my home church) has kept on with the You-Tube Service. 

A few changes have evolved over the past few days. I have decided that we will do a Celebration of Life for Edward on the anniversary of his death (April 10 2022 which does happen to be a Sunday). I need to investigate whether this is possible with the Dean at the Cathedral. I am also investigating having him interred in the Columbarium at the Cathedral. From the time that my Church first decided to create the Columbarium I have been interested in it as my burial site although Edward was interested in Beechwood. He said in his will that he would add a page which would include his burial wishes but he did not do so. Even after several meetings with Beechwood he did not commit to the proposed burial material that they had prepared. However, my daughters would still need to agree with me so no firm intention on that yet. 

As well I am investigating taking a course at Algonquin  College - Certified Autism Specialist. I have given it quite a bit of thought and feel that I can be of help to my grandson so that he doesn't lose quite so much time at school as he moves on into the higher grades. It is a one year online course (can be taken part time) and the prerequisite is of course a High School Diploma. I have also mentioned my University degree with majors in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. I also took a course at St Pauls University, Ottawa which would be more applicable to this course namely Group Therapy - the exact title I need to look up - which I took in 2002-2003. I found it very meaningful for two reasons - one, I was in group therapy sessions when I was on the psychiatric ward at Victoria Hospital, in London, Ontario and two, as the cause of my breakdown emerged when my memory returned I experienced a number of flashbacks and until I took this course I did not totally understand what had happened to me. As we worked through the reasons for Group Therapy and how to conduct sessions I realized that what I had experienced and learned during my time on the Psychiatric Ward helped me as I worked my way through the flashbacks on items that had occurred years earlier. My diagnosis at the time of Multiple Sclerosis still stands likely although I find it hard to believe that I would have Multiple Sclerosis given the state of my health at this age of 76 years. 

I have been busy working away on my research but I feel that this new direction will help me to move ahead with my life.