Barely slept last night but up early to get ready for Edward's Celebration of Life. We have his favourite picture that he used from about 2004 on. I can not remember when he decided that it was his favourite as I was still working in those days and he had just recently retired. I was going to bring a number of pictures and his medals but decided that they are for us and this is our goodbye to him on a daily basis as we visit his urn when we go into his Memorial Room. It is never really goodbye though but until we meet again one day.
It is a beautiful sunny day which by far was his favourite unless he wanted rain for his garden! A few complications but hopefully will be ironed out as they are encountered.
Yesterday not a day of great accomplishment although did work on the Ancestry DNA matches. I can pretty much put anyone who matches with more than 25 cM into a family line if there are matches and it is rare now not to have at least one shared match. I copy them all into an Excel Spread sheet for my three siblings and myself and just record the number of segments and the size of the total match. The Ancestry has been helpful as some people have tested at other locations or moved their data to other locations so that I am able to actually see the match but more importantly there is often a tree on ancestry. I have an amazing number of Blake matches now with all of them pretty much being in England still. My line didn't venture away much except for my grandfather and his younger brother. The rest stayed in England and remain there it would appear.
Today it is a quiet time as I make sure I have everything together that we need to take with us.
Eulogy for the Celebration of the Life of Edward Kipp
Edward Kipp was the son of Lorne Kipp and Phyllis Margaret Link. His father was a farmer in southwestern Ontario and Edward spent the first two years of his life on the family farm. Once he walked (at nine months) he spent his days in the barn and out in the fields with his father as he was a large child and too big for his mother to carry him around. Sadly his father died from a farming accident when Edward was two years of age. It was a sadness that he carried with him but one of his many last thoughts were of his father and I am sure the reunion with him at death was a wondrous experience. Edward grew up in Princeton, Ontario with his mother and older brother until he went to the University of Western Ontario where he received his HBSc in Chemistry, his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry and his MLS in Library and Information Science. We met when he was doing his undergraduate degree at Western (I was a year behind him in Chemistry). There was a spark between us from the first meeting and we nurtured that spark until we married and continued that spark for 55 and a half years. Our children, Margaret and Kathryn, joined us on that fascinating journey and we did so many things together from their early years until his illness overcame him and we cared for him to the end of his days. He cherished his family time and his friend time.
His life was busy for as long as I knew him. He had so many hobbies, crafts and literary endeavours. His volunteerism was legendary and he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for his many activities. But mostly we remember him for his great ideas and his love of family. He could drag us out of our scholastic endeavours and show us the magic in the sky through the telescope; enjoy the opening of a new flower and watch as one bird after another came to enjoy his bird feeders.
He was raised United Church and for about 25 years we attended Convent Glen United Church now Orleans United Church where he sang in the Choir for seventeen years and was Church Treasurer for ten years. Choosing Christ Church Cathedral Columbarium as his resting place was my choice as I am Anglican and he loved the organ and choirs here. We have attended Christ Church for over twenty years and I continue as a parishioner albeit on YouTube.
He loved to walk and walk we did for mile after mile around city streets, down forest paths and up mountain slopes. At 50 he took on downhill skiing to be with his daughters and they loved those Saturday getaways to the local ski hills.
His initial reaction to travel overseas was to put it off but gradually we made the flights to Europe and he loved it. It was a yearly or every other year adventure and we saw where his ancestors had lived (and mine). Genealogy was really his most favourite hobby which he pursued as long as I knew him. A cousin of his, Gordon Riddle, persuaded him to go to a meeting of the then Ontario Genealogical Society, Ottawa Branch and a new activity emerged as he became a member and rarely missed a meeting for the next fourty years. He loved helping people find their ancestors and he diligently searched out his own. Much of his retirement years were spent in the New England States and New York attending Family Reunions and Repositories as well as graveyards. I always used to say he never missed a graveyard on any of the roads we drove on. Some so secluded that we saw no one but ourselves as we searched amongst the ancient tombstones for that particular one that he knew was there.
It was sad that illness crept into his life. At retirement he was very active still and enjoyed his gardening and his genealogy to the full I am very pleased to say. When he asked me to retire three years later I did. We filled those hours together with so many projects and lots of long walks and gardening as well as our travels.
But his greatest personal joys were to come. Kathryn and Rick (his son in law) have two sons and they were a wondrous happening for him each sharing his bright blue eyes. He loved his daughters; enjoyed their company but having grandsons was such a treat for him. He loved them both dearly and was looking forward to introducing the children to the stars and the moon through his new telescope that he bought to show them the world outside of our world. But it was to be only a short introduction as time caught up to him.
First a pacemaker and once inserted he was back again doing the things he loved to do but with perhaps a little less zest and more help. The pacemaker revealed a hidden disease which would eventually take over his life and gradually sap his energy. Time moved slowly for him in some ways as he appreciated the less active life due to illness. But still we drove all over Ontario and Eastern Canada to visit with his various cousins that last year before COVID. As COVID closed us down so was his illness doing the same to him and sadly we watched as he gradually needed more and more help. I want to thank both of my daughters – Margaret and Kathryn – for all their help during that last year of life. I could not have done it without them. Love you forever Edward. It is never goodbye but until we meet again beyond the veil. Love Elizabeth
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