Category Archives: Extended Family

news, interaction with our extended family

Farewell to Alice

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Alice Embury

Grandma Embury

Nannie

September 23, 1908 – December 23, 2010

throughout her long life of 102 years she has also been known as

daughter

sister

wife

mother

grandmother

great grandmother

great great grandmother

friend

….. to me she was my grandmother and my friend

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her talents and passions were many

everything she put her mind to she mastered…..

loving matriarch of her extended family

listening ear

positive spirit

inspiring character

godly woman

cribbage master extraordinaire

knitting for family, friends, strangers, charity

transforming yarn into baby clothes, blankets, afghans, scarves, mittens, hats, sweaters

prolific letter writer

enthusiastic reader

crosswords and puzzles

quick walking stride, no trek too long

rest in peace my dear Nannie, our memories of you live on

Merry Christmas from the Leggett Family

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201012230254.jpg Merry Christmas 201012230258.jpg

from the Leggetts!

Dear friends and family,

We wish each of you joy during this Christmas season and hope that there are many blessings you can recall as you look back on this past year. For us the year has had some important events and many quieter moments.

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David remains in bed, though making some small steps forward. He now has a physician and alternative health practitioner who will be able to try to treat him for his illnesses at home. This is a huge step forward and certainly an answer to many people’s prayers. One highlight for David this year was when we managed to find a window of opportunity to bring his grandmother, who is over 100, to visit for a couple of days. David hadn’t been able to see her in 4 years. She had been saving up her energy and surprised us all with how plucky she was when she was here. 201012230307.jpg

Erin made the transition from elementary school to high school this year. She had an opportunity to go to Ottawa with her middle school band in the spring for a national band competition. Now she has followed her sister to high school and continues to play flute in the junior band. She is also enjoying dance and drama there, along with the regular subjects. In her spare time she spends a lot of time with her pet mice. Erin loves animals.

Catherine spent half of the summer as a camp counselor. She enjoys working with young children. She is in grade 12 this year but will be staying in high school for another year as she has been heavily involved in arts courses – dance and band. She has the privilege of being involved in the school dance company this year as well, which involves lots of extra time, but also many opportunities.

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Kristine’s parents had their 50th wedding anniversary in June and it was a treat to be able to get there and help them celebrate. She continues to enjoy her job as a Nursing Practice Leader at the nearby hospital. There are always new challenges and the privilege of helping to stir passion for patient centred care in staff.

All the best in the new year.

With love from David, Kristine, Catherine & Erin

Reunion with my grandmother: An amazing centenarian

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grandmother A few weeks ago we had the privilege of seeing “Nannie” (my grandmother). I hadn’t seen her in about 4 years, due to the scourge of lyme disease and various tick-borne co-infections. She doesn’t travel much – I guess she is slowing down a little with age, now that she is on the cusp of 102 years old. Her persistence in wanting to see me paid off, as Kristine was able to travel and pick her up this summer. Thanks to Alice and family for providing a home base for Nannie, and for getting her back home.

Nannie’s favourite game is cribbage…. she is truly the “champ,” having likely played close to 100,000 games over her lifetime and even garnering a very rare “29” hand a number of decades ago. In fact, she and my mother taught me, and I have always loved the game. Nannie and I played two games over the two afternoons that she was visiting us…. The first result was no surprise – talk about dismal hands!! And I was rather rusty. On the second day, the good cards were turning up in my hand, and perhaps my head was a bit clearer. I won! So, in the end we ended our 2-day “tournament” in a peace-rendering draw! What fun!

Over the 4 hours that we spent together, we reminisced about when I was young, when she stayed with us when Catherine and Erin were newborns, and when they were toddlers and bouncing off the walls. We talked about family history, going back many generations in Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, and Germany.

The visit ended too soon. We have precious memories, pictures and video clips. And a commitment on my part to write more (as I am able). Certainly seeing her was a belated 46th birthday present for me!

All Sorts of Things

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This winter so far has been great, I had a great christmas with lots of family over and lots of fun things to do. On Christmas day my aunt was over and we had a seafood dinner. On boxing day my aunt (my dad’s sister) was over and my uncle (my mom’s brother) and his three girls were over. My mom’s parents were also over (my Omi and Opa), so we had a big turkey dinner for 10. I really like turkey dinners because some of my favourite foods are stuffing and mashed potatoes. I got some really nice things for christmas like three computer games I really wanted, two really pretty posters, a bed canopy which I have always wanted. I also got a gift card to an online store which has some very nice things, some cookies, an itunes gift card, some money and some books. Also for christmas I am getting pet mice, which I really want! I am getting them a few weeks after christmas even though they are part of a present.

fancy_mice.jpgI am really excited about getting pet mice, I have already picked out all the stuff I am going to buy for them (the pet store’s website)I really like animals so I am just happy to be getting pets. Before I get mice my parents said I have to research them, so I did. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I’ve learned. Like for instance did you know that a mouse’s brain in relation to their body size is bigger than an apes or a dolphins OR a human’s brain compared to their body size. So mice are very smart. You can teach them many things, like to relate a certain noise to something like food. Mice are very social creatures so its recommended that you have at least two. Mice require very little space but of course they will enjoy it if you give them more space. You should never ever feed mice acidic vegetables or fruit because it can kill them. You should also stay away from chocolate, raw meat, other animal food (like cat or dog food). You should stay away from cedar or pine bedding because it can harm their respiratory system. Mice are nocturnal creatures and they don’t live over 2.5 years. You should keep your mouse cage away from drafts and direct sunlight. I hoped you learned a little about mice that I am sure most of you didn’t know before.

Erin

Using email at age 101

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Ottawa Sept 08 028

My grandmother (“Nannie”) is 101 years old today. Yesterday I got an email from her. I was overwhelmed!

In 1908

  • the summer olympics were held in London, England
  • the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed December 30th at 86.15
  • General Motors Corporation was created
  • the Model T Ford model was introduced
  • the first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race, began
  • the Wright brothers had flown the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight just a couple of years earlier
  • Lucy Maud Montgomery, 35, began a series of Anne of Green Gables novels
  • nearly 90 percent of the horsepower used on English and Welsh farms came from horses
  • only about 10 percent of U.S. homes were wired for electricity
  • a long-distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time
  • the Tunguska event, also known as the Russian explosion, occurred in Siberia
  • Ernest Rutherford of England won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his studies of radioactivity, alpha particles, and the atom

And to think I just received her email in 2009….. It really makes me wonder what 2110 will be like!

Happy birthday Nannie! May you celebrate many more with all of us who love you and collectively are your numerous progeny.

Summer reflections

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IMG_1110.JPG Time flies! Summer was always my favourite time, as I wrapped up my school, ensured that timetables, programs and facilities were ready for the fall, and said good-bye to my staff as they left in stages through early-mid July. Then came the barbeques, golf, the family camping trips, visits to family cottages, and the inevitable return to school mid-August to oversee final preparations to greet students sporting a new polish and shine.

Certainly many things have changed over the past five years! Kristine has been a Mental Health Nursing Practice Leader for over four years, and has been very successful in her role. Catherine is turning 17 this winter and is really enjoying her time at the arts-focussed school. Erin is a proud senior in grade 8 at middle school. As a newly minted teenager, her opinions are seldom unheard and more vibrant than ever 🙂

IMG_1080.JPGThis summer has seen a lot of activity come and go, in spite of my daily needs for attention and care. Erin and Catherine spent about a week or so with each set of grandparents, and even got to see their cousins (Craig’s girls) for almost a week. Devil Lake was never so frenetic! Kristine even got to spend a few days there with her parents and our girls. Catherine spent a month at Ontario Pioneer Camp as part of the Leadership Training program. Erin was at Pioneer Girls’ Camp for two weeks. Both girls had a wonderful time!

Although it pains me at times to talk about it too much, lyme disease has been difficult – any which way you look at it. Being bedbound confines me to a virtual prison. I get to hear about the world and even see it through my window, and that has to be enough for the foreseeable future. Being this way also makes a lot of friends and family feel physically and emotionally awkward. What does one say? Reminders of healthier and more active times aren’t easy for others (nor for me), and often constitute unwelcome intrusions into a life that doesn’t handle the mortal limitations and “surprises” that are part of the human condition. And a bit of a downer to see me like this.

For me, the good news is that I have found ways to be useful, especially given the wireless connection over my laptop mac. This blog is one of them – I even dabble a bit with twitter and facebook. Other computer “projects” include keeping the family organized (iCal, OmniFocus, EagleFiler, Circus Ponies NoteBook, Punakea), keeping up with extended family and world news (Mail, Safari, NetNewsWire), converting analog audio/video family archives to digital, organizing digital photos (iPhoto), working on family history/genealogy (need family input!), etc… The limiting factor each day is the profound cellular fatigue which constrains my every movement and portions out only very limited energy at a time. Managing this extremely low energy ceiling is part of every day life. Embracing the challenges seems a lot more useful than moping about it all. I would like to write a blog series on my experience with lyme disease, although I am not sure that many readers would welcome such a personal story and frank assessment of one of the most serious and exploding health issues that we face today. It is quite likely that about 200,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians are infected each year by the bacteria causing lyme disease (see the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation ), but this remains largely hidden due to the insurance and medical lobbies and control over the flow of information, a political policy vacuum, inadequate and very misleading official Canadian testing, and a general reticence to tackle such a silent and complex debilitator. It has been quite a journey, from the initial medical confusion, to the inability to lead a school any more, to the long-term treatment failures, to the condition I face now, to the ongoing struggle as we have sought out alternatives that are credible and have helped others.

I look forward to progress along the health front, and memorable times for our family this fall. Maybe I can even find it within me to laugh for no reason at all.

As Norm Papernick said,

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.