Change in Lifestyle

 Every few months I undergo a change in lifestyle from being a grandmother/mother to being a mother only. It takes me a couple of days to adjust plus I still am a grandmother for part of the week as my youngest grandson comes to stay for a couple of days for his therapy as he has autism. He is doing well but along with the autism he has speech difficulties which are also improving. He is a happy child though and loves his computer which he works away on whenever he has time. I taught him to use powerpoint and word and he enjoys those programs very much but mostly he likes games and I can understand that as I begin each day with my Microsoft Solitaire and then during the day I play a few more games in my quiet times. But it lets me spend time with each of my daughters which is wonderful. I did not see them that often as Edward had so many things he was involved in and wanted to do that kept us wandering about the countryside every month and into the United States several times a year. Plus we did travel to Europe. All of this quiet time is now with me and I am glad that Edward got to do all of his traveling when he did because he found it difficult to do that anyway when COVID restricted us to home along with the rest of Canada. 

The rules are lifted now but I would say more than 50% of people still wear masks in stores and other places where people gather. It is nice not to have colds although I was not a cold prone person particularly. 

The best thing about COVID was Church on YouTube and it continues. It is wondrous that now we can tell anyone in the world about Jesus and they can choose whether or not to learn about him just by selecting or not selecting Church on YouTube. The worst thing about COVID time was losing Edward and the horrific deaths that occurred in the Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Homes here in Canada. It was so very sad. It was something my husband feared and so he too struggled to stay with us so that he would not be alone. Although it was very hard for my oldest daughter and I to manage him we are so very glad that we did. The PSWs the last couple of months were very handy and the home nurse visits we were most thankful for and it is now over a year since all of that. The first nine or ten months after Edward passed from us behind the veil that separates death from life were a blur for me but I blogged pretty much every day. It will be a long time before I reread any of that I suspect. We were heartbroken to lose him but God in His Wisdom provided us with many thoughts passed down through the Holy Bible to help us to adjust to life without Edward knowing he is with His Heavenly Father and his own Father once again. 

Today is hopefully a gardening day but does look like rain so maybe not. Time will tell. I started the Pincombe Newsletter yesterday and I think switching from Richard Pincombe (circa latter part of the 1500s) of Filleigh, East Buckland and Bishops Nympton to John Pincombe (circa early 1500s) of South Molton is a good plan. Dr. Joe Flood's talk at BIFHSGO convinced me that I really needed to deal with the Pincombe family in Barnstaple and all that I really know about one line of Pincombe there was that they changed their name back to the mother's maiden name of COAD which is Joe's one name study. He wrote me several years ago about the PINCOMBE study that I was running and did I know about this particular family that matched the Pincombe yDNA study and I immediately wrote back and asked him to tell the testers (two of them) to join the Pincombe project and indeed they matched my cousins very well in the study. Joe had some theories on the Pincombe family that they could have come from Cornwall which didn't quite mix with my thoughts that they came to North Molton from Pencombe in Herefordshire (the Pencombe spelling was used by early family members along with Pyncombe and Pincombe). It is time to look at that now for sure and I have the time to do that which was always a problem before. I just never had enough time as Edward liked me to help him with his projects and they tended to take top priority. 

I am also into collecting up all of Edward's mother's things to give to her eldest granddaughter - my eldest daughter thought that was a good idea and I agree. We will ask them to meet us halfway across the province and transfer everything to them. There is a lot actually. Edward had all of her dishes and a large Hope Chest that was hers at marriage (and where he discovered his treasure of a picture of his father, mother, older brother and himself as a young child in his father's arms). There are many pictures of the family which are all scanned so will pass the printed copies (mostly framed) to her for her family. So far there are about four boxes along with the Hope Chest and another large bin. The dishes will probably be five or six boxes as well. It will certainly fill our car so will have to warn her that there is a lot coming. We still have our Memorial Room for Edward with his favourite flowers that he tended with the rubber trees being about 30 years old now. I work on his computer in there when I am doing anything on his research. 

Past the middle of May now and we are hoping to do Edward's Celebration of Life in July. I have written a rough draft of his Eulogy and will keep on improving on that.