SHEWARD, Edwin Kitchen [12388]

   Cause of his death was Heart failure.

  General Notes:

When Canada entered the first world war, Grandpa Sheward sent my father back to the States so that he wouldn't be conscripted. When the war ended, he came back to Guelph. During the time he was in the States, he and my mother were engaged.

In 1919, Mom and Dad were married in St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Guelph, and went on their honeymoon to New Jersey to the home of Uncle Jack, who, being childless, treated them very well. Uncle Jack had not yet moved to Guelph. According to Aunt Marge it was a small town, not a major one. Mom described the shivaree the folks in New Jersey gave them on their honeymoon night.

Dad's best man was Frank Laidlaw. Frank's brother, George, owned the corner grocery store on Neeve St. Frank himself was an executive at the carpet mill and owned a big house. Frank's wife had dated Dad before he got interested in Mom.

Dad had piano lessons as a child, and was qualified to teach. He played the piano for a movie theater before he was married, and as a result he played the piano loud and strong. His wife-to-be would sit nearby, starry-eyed, munching candies. Later he peddled sheet music, playing piano to demonstrate the new tunes, traveling around the country. He told me how he would bill the company for travel expenses across town to lodgings, while in reality he stayed in a room across the street from the train station. I remember especially The Shiek of Araby, and The Storm (Tempest?).

When we lived on Orangelawn, we lived upstairs and Aunt Marge and Uncle Bert lived downstairs. We had a dog, Lady, a collie and she was afraid of thunder. According to Aunt Marge, once when we were all away and a thunderstorm struck, Lady jumped from the second floor porch. Somehow, she survived the fall.

Dad was a stamp collector. One time when my Dad was putting a cover on his stamp book, he asked Mom how much glue he should use to hold the cover on. "Oh," she said, "about the size of a dime". The next thing I saw was Dad, taking a pencil and making a precise circle on the paper, the size of a dime, to put the glue on.

Once he made a cabinet for his workshop. He made the dimensions of the drawers as close as he could, being used to working in metal as a tool and die maker. After the first rain, the drawers were swollen and he couldn't get them open.

At home, Dad was pretty solemn, but once I was at an office party where he was. A man in the styling section, who was the stamping advisor, was retiring from Chrysler, where he had worked with my Dad. Here's my Dad, with his arms around a couple of guys, a drink in hand, having his picture taken. He was being as outgoing as he could get, jolly, playing cards... an entirely different man from the one I had known all my life. I found out later, he was quite outgoing when he was away from home.

Dad had a gladioli collection, and bred new hybrids. He used to put them out on the sidewalk when they bloomed and sell them, or take them in to people at work. He had all sorts of records in the basement, and each year he set the bulbs all out in the garden, marked with little brass rods with aluminum name plates telling the name and identifying number of each plant. One year, he had the bulbs out, and they had not come up yet. Some kids came along and pulled out all the labels. My Dad came home to find this. I remember him sitting there, tears running down his face, knowing that all his years of effort could not be recovered.

When Dad started tying flies, he got all the guys he knew who hunted to bring him deer hides. He took wash tubs, filled them full of water, then dyed each hide a different color. He never had enough, even though one hide would have lasted him a lifetime.

When Dad had his first heart attack, he was told to stay home and rest. So he spent the time installing birch paneling throughout the house. He panelled the hallway, the dining area, the living room... and did a good job, too.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Residence, Between 1914 and 1917, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. ^{4 5} On Neeve St.

• Residence, Between 1919 and 1959, Detroit, Wayne Co, MI. ^{6 7 8 9 10}

• Occupation: Tool & Die Consultant.

Edwin married Margaret BRIGGS [12387] [MRIN: 4311], daughter of Thomas BRIGGS [12316] and Marjorie WATSON [12317], on 24 Jun 1919 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.¹¹ (Margaret BRIGGS [12387] was born on 25 Feb 1898 in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland ² and died on 10 May 1991 in Madison Heights, Oakland Co, MI ^{12 13}.) The cause of her death was Carcinomatosis, cecal carcinoma, dehydration.