My grandfather Chauncey Brafford was born in 7 Mar 1901 and he passed away 09 Mar 1949. I never got to meet him when he was alive, but I did meet him one time. (There are people that don't believe me that this happened) In high school I was having what panic attacks. One day, sitting on our front porch, I saw a man, dressed in old-fashioned style brown suit w/bowler hat. I heard him say "It's okay, you'll be fine" From that day on, the panic attacks were gone. I knew it was my grandfather. Before that, I had never really thought about or asked about my Grandpa Brafford. I started asking about him and even got my grandma to show me pictures of him (had never seen one before). My middle brother is the spitting image of him(we even have pictures of each of them with the same stance and expression on their faces taken about 60 years apart). I believe this is when I became interested in genealogy. I wanted to find out everything I could about him.
He held many jobs. He was a conductor on a tram in Detroit, he delivered ice (this is how he met my grandmother), he did not have to go overseas during the WWII because he worked at GarWood Industries working on tank engines (actually my Grandpa Fry also worked at GarWood during the war).
My mom's favorite memories of him were when they went to the library together every saturday. It was their time together. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom and I going to the library. It was our time together. We still go to the library together at least once a week. 2 of my brothers and I must have gotten our love of reading from him and our mom--my dad did not like to read. It's very rare that you see ones of us without a book in hand.
